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

After years of drought in the Everglades, the ecosystem’s population of the only type of apple snail native to Florida failed to recover, pushing the birds to rely on hardier, non-native species. —Sofia Baltodano, Miami Herald, 17 Feb. 2026

Suckers can be stimulated to grow for a variety of reasons, such as the vigor of a plant’s root system in situations where the plant is grafted (as many non-native witchhazels and tree cultivars are). —Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 13 Feb. 2026

Per the plan conceived by the Catalina Island Conservancy, professional hunters will shoot the island’s non-native mule deer on the ground over four to five years. —Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2026

Like non-native vines and trees, invasive shrubs can take over a landscape quickly. —Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 31 Jan. 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