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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

native.

Belonging to one by birth or ancestry.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈneɪtɪv/Received-Pronunciation/ˈneɪtəv//ˈneɪtɪv/
  1. Belonging to one by birth or ancestry.

    This is my native land.
    English is not my native language.
  2. Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from prehistoric times.

    Many native artists studied abroad.
    Native peoples in the continental United States are called Native Americans or American Indians.
  3. Alternative letter-case form of Native (of or relating to the native inhabitants of the Americas, or of Australia).

    alt-of
  4. Born or grown in the region in which it lives or is found; not foreign or imported.

    native oysters or strawberries
    Clover is not native to the Americas, but it is firmly established there.
  5. Which occurs of its own accord in a given locality, to be contrasted with a species introduced by humans.

    The naturalized Norway maple often outcompetes the native North American sugar maple.
  6. Pertaining to the system or architecture in question.

    This is a native back-end to gather the latest news feeds.
    The native integer size is sixteen bits.
  7. Occurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form.

    native aluminium
    native salt
  8. Arising by birth; having an origin; born.

  9. Original; constituting the original substance of anything.

    native dust
  10. Naturally related; cognate; connected (with).

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English natif, from Old French natif, from Latin nātīvus, from nātus (“birth”). Doublet of naive and neif. Displaced native Middle English thedisch, equivalent to (puristic) theed + -ish. By surface analysis, Latin nat- + -ive. Compare also inborn.

noun/ˈneɪtɪv/Received-Pronunciation/ˈneɪtəv//ˈneɪtɪv/
  1. A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.

  2. A person of aboriginal descent, as distinguished from a person who was or whose ancestors were foreigners or settlers/colonizers. Alternative letter-case form of Native (aboriginal inhabitant of the Americas or Australia).

  3. A native speaker.

  4. A native plant or animal.

  5. An oyster of species Ostrea edulis.

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English natif, from Old French natif, from Latin nātīvus, from nātus (“birth”). Doublet of naive and neif. Displaced native Middle English thedisch, equivalent to (puristic) theed + -ish. By surface analysis, Latin nat- + -ive. Compare also inborn.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.