non-native

adjective

non-na·​tive ˌnän-ˈnā-tiv 

variants or nonnative

: not native: such as

a

of a plant or animal : living or growing in a place that is not the location of its natural occurrence

a non-native fish species

… overgrazing causes grasslands to give way to sagebrush, mesquite and non-native exotic grasses, environmentalists contend.

—Doug McInnis

b

: not born or raised in the place where a particular language is spoken

non-native inhabitants

a nonnative speaker of English [=a person who speaks English but whose native language is not English]

non-native noun

or nonnative

plural non-natives or nonnatives

popular among both natives and non-natives

Synonyms

• alien
• foreign

Examples of non-native in a Sentence

nonnative customs that made the recent immigrants stand out in their new country

Recent Examples on the Web

While native species are ideal, since some support multiple pollinator life stages or other wildlife, non-invasive non-native plants can also be used. —Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 20 June 2024

The workshop will include a live demonstration of various arrangements of native, non-native, and invasive plant species. —Joe Rassel, Orlando Sentinel, 19 June 2024

Despite its non-native status and exasperating tendency to blanket cars and sidewalks with slippery, aphid-attracting flowers, jacaranda trees have their fans, especially right now when streets, freeways and medians are saturated with bluish-purple flowers. —Lisa Boone, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2024

So, in this experiment, Roberts and her students cleared around two acres of grass and poison ivy and shrubs and just kind of weedy non-native species from a streamside that was on campus. —Sophie McNulty, Scientific American, 13 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined above