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 of non-native

• 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

Free-living non-native pigs east of the Wallace Line exhibit complex genomes that suggest waves of prehistoric human translocations. —Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 24 Feb. 2026

Tarps or black plastic can also prevent rainwater from reaching the soil, effectively starving non-native plants that do not handle drought very well. —Michelle Mastro, The Spruce, 22 Feb. 2026

These non-native species, introduced by human activity, represent potential threats to the island’s newest inhabitants. —ABC News, 20 Feb. 2026

Some of the bees for sale are also non-native and, when introduced, could cause ecological harm. —Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 20 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for non-native

• creative
• locative
• nonnative
• probative
• rotative
• accommodative
• accumulative
• adjudicative
• administrative
• agglutinative
• ameliorative
• appreciative