non-native

adjective

non-na·tive ˌnän-ˈnā-tiv

variants or nonnative

: not native: such as

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

: 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

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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The non-native rabbits were brought to Australia in the late 1700s by British settlers as a food source. —

Joan Morris, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2025 Detection software can misidentify writing as AI-generated and are biased against non-native English speakers, and education experts warn against using the detectors in a disciplinary context. —

Rachel Hale, USA TODAY, 24 Jan. 2025 Rather than deal with subtitles or translations, the characters use accents when speaking English in the play but then remove them when speaking Farsi, thus replicating the experience of non-native speakers from the audience’s perspective. —

Chris Jones, New York Daily News, 24 Jan. 2025 Because vervets are non-native, state law does not protect them. —

Samantha Dee, Sun Sentinel, 9 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for non-native