/ayl"yeuhn, ay"lee euhn/ , n.
1. a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization (distinguished from citizen ).
2. a foreigner.
3. a person who has been estranged or excluded.
4. a creature from outer space; extraterrestrial.
adj.
5. residing under a government or in a country other than that of one's birth without having or obtaining the status of citizenship there.
6. belonging or relating to aliens: alien property.
7. unlike one's own; strange; not belonging to one: alien speech.
8. adverse; hostile; opposed (usually fol. by to or from ): ideas alien to modern thinking.
9. extraterrestrial.
[ 1300-50; ME alienus, equiv. to * alies- ( ali-, base of alius other + -es- n. suffix) + -nus adj. suffix ]
Syn. 1. immigrant. 2. See stranger. 3. outcast. 7. exotic, foreign.