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

• 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

Additionally, all invasive species are non-native, but not all non-native species are invasive. —Gabrielle Chenault, Nashville Tennessean, 25 Sep. 2025

The smaller, second project will remove around 170 hazardous, non-native or invasive trees along Poway’s portion of Camino del Norte, while roughly 200 more trees there will be trimmed. —Elizabeth Marie Himchak, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Sep. 2025

The importation of non-native species of plants has the unintended consequence of also introducing non-native species of insects. —Chris McKeown, Cincinnati Enquirer, 20 Sep. 2025

In addition to picking up trash, volunteers will be removing invasive, non-native plants. —Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 17 Sep. 2025

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