foreign

for‧eign S3 W1 /ˈfɒrən, ˈfɒrɪn $ ˈfɔː-, ˈfɑː-/ adjective
[Date: 1200-1300; Language: Old French; Origin: forein, from Latin foris 'outside']
1. from or relating to a country that is not your own:
   • foreign students
   • Can you speak any foreign languages?
   • the success of foreign companies in various industries
   • I thought she sounded foreign.
   • transactions in foreign currencies
2. [only before noun] involving or dealing with other countries OPP domestic:
   • America’s foreign policy
  foreign investment/trade etc
   • Foreign competition provides consumers with a greater variety of goods.
   • our budget for foreign aid (=financial help to countries in need)
   • the Chinese Foreign Minister
3. be foreign to somebody formal
   a) to seem strange to someone as the result of not being known or understood SYN be alien to somebody:
   • The language of finance is quite foreign to me.
   b) to be not typical of someone’s usual character:
   • Aggression is completely foreign to his nature.
4. foreign body/matter/object formal a piece of dirt, glass, or other material that has got inside something, especially someone’s body, and that should not be there:
   • cells that are designed to attack and destroy foreign bodies
—foreignness noun [uncountable]

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

foreign

for·eign [ˈfɒrən] [ˈfɔːrən] [ˈfɑːrən]adjective

1. in or from a country that is not your own

• a foreign accent/language/student

• a foreign-owned company

• foreign holidays

• You could tell she was foreign by the way she dressed.

2. only before noun dealing with or involving other countries

• foreign affairs/news/policy/trade

• foreign aid

• a foreign correspondent (= one who reports on foreign countries in newspapers or on television)

Opp: domestic, Opp: home

3. ~ to sb/sth (formal) not typical of sb/sth; not known to sb/sth and therefore seeming strange

• Dishonesty is foreign to his nature.

4. ~ object/body (formal) an object that has entered sth by accident and should not be there

• Tears help to protect the eye from potentially harmful foreign bodies.

Word Origin:

Middle English foren, forein, from Old French forein, forain, based on Latin foras, foris ‘outside’, from fores ‘door’. The current spelling arose in the 16th cent., by association with sovereign.

Thesaurus:

foreign [foreign] adj.

• What foreign languages do you speak?

especially business politics overseas • • external • |often disapproving alien •

Opp: native, Opp: domestic, Opp: home

(a/an) foreign/overseas/alien country/territory

foreign/overseas/external trade/markets/debt/policy

a foreign/an overseas bank/firm/holiday/tour/trip

a foreign/an alien culture/language/species/system

Which word? Foreign is the most frequent of these words and has the widest range. Overseas and external are factual words with no suggestion of ‘strangeness’, which foreign and alien sometimes have. Alien can also be used to describe plants and animals from a foreign country.

Example Bank:

• The name sounded foreign.

• This kind of attitude is completely foreign to her.

• a slightly foreign accent

• He was appointed Home Secretary and then later Foreign Secretary.

• She had no money and was alone in a foreign country.

• She was working as a foreign correspondent.

• The cinema often shows foreign films.

• The collection of plants includes many native and foreign species.

• The new president had no experience of foreign affairs.

• There have been changes in both domestic and foreign policy.

• There were very few foreign cars on the roads in those days.

• Tourism is the country's biggest foreign currency earner.

• What foreign languages do you speak?

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

foreign

foreign /ˈfɒr.ən/ US /ˈfɔːr-/
adjective
1 belonging or connected to a country which is not your own:
Spain was the first foreign country she had visited.
foreign languages
His work provided him with the opportunity for a lot of foreign travel.

2 FORMAL foreign to Something can be described as foreign to a particular person if it is unknown to them or not within their experience:
The whole concept of democracy, she claimed, was utterly foreign to the present government.

3 describes an object or substance which has entered something else, possibly by accident, and does not belong there:
a foreign object/substance
foreign matter

foreigner /ˈfɒr.ə.nəʳ/ US /ˈfɔːr.ə.nɚ/
noun [C]
a person who comes from another country

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary

foreign

[fɒ̱rɪn, AM fɔ͟ːr-]

1) ADJ Something or someone that is foreign comes from or relates to a country that is not your own.
  ...in Frankfurt, where a quarter of the population is foreign...
  She was on her first foreign holiday without her parents.
  ...a foreign language...
  It is the largest ever private foreign investment in the Bolivian mining sector.
2) ADJ: ADJ n In politics and journalism, foreign is used to describe people, jobs, and activities relating to countries that are not the country of the person or government concerned.
  ...the German foreign minister...
  I am the foreign correspondent in Washington of La Tribuna newspaper of Honduras.
  ...the effects of US foreign policy in the `free world'.
3) ADJ: usu ADJ n A foreign object is something that has got into something else, usually by accident, and should not be there. [FORMAL]
  The patient's immune system would reject the transplanted organ as a foreign object.
4) ADJ-GRADED: usu v-link ADJ to n Something that is foreign to a particular person or thing is not typical of them or is unknown to them.
  The very notion of price competition is foreign to many schools...
  The whole thing is foreign to us.