(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
Your ~ country or area is the country or area where you were born and brought up.
It was his first visit to his ~ country since 1948...
Mother Teresa visited her ~ Albania.
ADJ: ADJ n
2.
A ~ of a particular country or region is someone who was born in that country or region.
Dr Aubin is a ~ of St Blaise.
N-COUNT: N of n
•
Native is also an adjective.
Joshua Halpern is a ~ Northern Californian.
...men and women ~ to countries such as Japan.
ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ to n
3.
Some European people use ~ to refer to a person living in a non-Western country who belongs to the race or tribe that the majority of people there belong to. This use could cause offence.
They used force to banish the ~s from the more fertile land.
N-COUNT
•
Native is also an adjective.
Native people were allowed to retain some sense of their traditional culture and religion.
= indigenous
ADJ: ADJ n
4.
Your ~ language or tongue is the first language that you learned to speak when you were a child.
She spoke not only her ~ language, Swedish, but also English and French...
French is not my ~ tongue.
ADJ: ADJ n
5.
Plants or animals that are ~ to a particular region live or grow there naturally and were not brought there.
...a project to create a 50 acre forest of ~ Caledonian pines...
Many of the plants are ~ to Brazil.
= indigenous
ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ to n
•
Native is also a noun.
The coconut palm is a ~ of Malaysia.
N-COUNT: N of n
6.
A ~ ability or quality is one that you possess naturally without having to learn it.
We have our ~ inborn talent, yet we hardly use it.
= innate
ADJ: ADJ n