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Glite Dictionary
🛸 Strangeness 📄 Non-citizen status
alienness

alienness

8.6
The state of not being a citizen of a country or a member of a group
  • noun
  • /ˈeɪliənnəs/
  • Formal
translation icon : ajeneidad
  • The alienness of the law made it difficult for non-citizens to navigate the system.

Examples

  • That had to limit the alienness of the ship.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • According to this definition, it would be impossible to tolerate minorities, because their flaw in the eyes of the oppressor is not some moral offense, but consists in their alienness as such.

    Academic text (1998)

  • In discussions about immigration, we often address the alienness experienced by those who are new to a country.

  • Her alienness in the new environment was palpable as she struggled to adapt to the culture.

Synonyms

alienage
vsalienness
  • Formal
1 9.9

A condition where a person is not a country's citizen and has different legal rights

is broader, applying to official nonmembership beyond legal rights
alienism
vsalienness
  • Archaic
1 9.9

The feeling of being foreign or different from others

is about legal or official noncitizen status rather than personal foreign feeling

Antonyms

membership
156 2.7

Being part of a group or club

citizenship
134 3.5

Being a legal member of a country with rights and responsibilities

How Foreign

foreignness
1 6.8
alienness
  • Formal
8.6
alien
  • Formal
201 3.3
immigrant
768 2.5
citizenship
134 3.5

Surface Forms

alienness singular
aliennesses plural

Morphology

alienness = alien (transparent) = alien + ness

Formed by the noun 'alien' + '-ness' to indicate the state or condition of being an alien (non-citizen); this composition is straightforward.

Etymology

Alienness comes from the Latin alienus, 'other' or 'belonging to someone else', and is the same root as alien. In legal use it names the state of being a foreign person who is not a country's citizen, so alienness means not belonging in a legal or official way.