Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective not being or composed of aborigines. Opposite of native.
  • adjective Of persons born in another area or country than that lived in; foreign-born.
  • adjective Originating in a different region and acclimated to a new environment; -- of plants or animals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not native
  • noun Someone who is not a native

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not being or composed of aborigines
  • adjective of plants or animals originating in a part of the world other than where they are growing
  • adjective of persons born in another area or country than that lived in

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

non- +‎ native

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Examples

  • In California, the bellwether for all things pertaining to illegal immigration, large numbers of U. S.-born Hispanic students continue to be classified as nonnative "English language learners" through much of their school years, even though they speak English, because their academic and linguistic skills are so deficient.

    Say No To Amnesty 2010

  • Interesting, this speaker told me that she was often mistaken for a 'nonnative' speaker of English by Americans unfamiliar with her accent.

    languagehat.com: NATIVE SPEAKER. 2004

  • This has led to problems such as nonnative species escaping into the wild and pollution as well as sea lice infestation and disease, because there is no barrier between captive salmon and the wild version in surrounding waters.

    UnderwaterTimes.com News of the Underwater World 2010

  • The result was a system that discriminated between native and 'nonnative' tribes.

    GlobalResearch.ca 2009

  • As growing numbers of nonnative speakers of Global English bend English around their own word orders, at least a few could gain wide usage.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • Many of these pieces of language are already elemental building blocks in the daily lives of countless nonnative speakers of English.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • In the western provinces of the Roman Empire, Latin was used by native and nonnative speakers alike for tax collecting, commerce, entertainment, rituals, and ceremonies, and in the all-important Roman military.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • As one would expect, notions that are alien to teenage nonnative speakers of English abound in the verbal sections of the exam.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • These and so many others are cases of adoption by nonnative users of English, not of imposition.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • How might nonnative speakers remedy the s trouble in English?

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

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