foreign word
Non-native vocabulary item
A foreign word is a term borrowed from another language that retains its non-English character in spelling, pronunciation, or feel.
Unlike fully naturalized loanwords, foreign words often appear in italics to signal their outsider status: The text was peppered with foreign words like Weltanschauung and joie de vivre.
The designation is somewhat arbitrary—words gradually lose their foreignness through frequent use.
- loanwordImported vocabulary item
- borrowedTaken for temporary use
- exoticStrikingly unusual, foreign-seeming
- importObtain from overseas
- translationConverting between languages
lost in translation · phrase · language · mother tongue · accent · untranslatable · je ne sais quoi · calque · etymology · alien · tongue · dialect · expression · idiom · false friend · multilingual · polyglot · code switching
- etymologyetymon, origin, root, linguistic roots, Latin roots
- crosswordsacross, cryptic, acrostic, clues, codeword
- loanwordsloanword, borrowings, borrowing, calque, loan translation
- Contact Languagespidgin, creole language, trade language, pidginization, relexification
- language policylanguage laws, language politics, official language, official languages, language education
foreign, foreigner, foreigners, foreignness, word, words, wording, worded, wordless