native

NAY-tiv/ˈneɪtɪv/

13 meanings of native

1
person born therenouncountable
A person born in a particular place.
Only a native of the city could navigate its tangled streets.
A native of Chicago, he moved to Seattle after college but still follows his hometown teams.
UsageUsually a native of a place (a native of Chicago). The adjective also comes before a word naming someone from a place: a native New Yorker.
Similarlocal
Oppositeoutsider, foreigner, newcomer
2
grows wild hereadjective
Of a plant or animal, living or growing naturally in a particular place, rather than having been brought there by people from elsewhere.
The restaurant prides itself on serving only native shellfish.
Wildflowers native to the prairie need far less water than the grass in most lawns.
UsageUsually native to a place (native to North America), or before a noun: native plants, native shellfish.
Oppositealien
3
indigenous (culture)adjective
Characteristic of or relating to the people who have inhabited a region since prehistoric times.
The exhibit traces native craft traditions across the continent.
Archaeologists uncovered native dwellings dating back millennia.
UsageCapitalized in the names of peoples: Native American, Native Hawaiian.
Similarindigenous, aboriginal
4
home (by birth)adjective
Belonging to a person by birth, such as the country where they were born or the language they learned first.
He never lost the accent of his native region.
Her native tongue was Portuguese, though she spoke five languages.
UsageUsual partners: native language, native land, native country. Before a word naming someone from a place, it means born there: a native New Yorker.
Similarhome
Oppositeforeign
Note
This is the sense of native land, native tongue and native city: something that is yours from birth. Stephen Hawes already writes of his "natyf language" in The Pastime of Pleasure, the allegorical poem printed in 1509.
5
built-in (software)adjective
Belonging to or designed for the particular system or architecture in question.
The developers rewrote the tool to run as native code on the new chips.
Native applications generally perform faster than those run through emulation.
Note
Programmers use this word for whatever belongs to the platform itself, such as native code, a native back-end, or a machine's native integer size. Native code runs directly on the processor, with no translation or emulation layer, and a native app is one built for a particular operating system. The idea has since spread into compounds such as cloud native and crypto native, which describe something built for that environment from the start.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Native applications are designed for a particular platform but can use managed runtimes, including .NET; native applications and native code are distinct concepts. learn.microsoft.com
6
nouncountable
A person who speaks a particular language as their first language.
A native rarely thinks about the grammar rules a learner must memorize.
After ten years in Madrid, his Spanish was so fluent that people often took him for a native.
UsageMore often said as native speaker: a native speaker of Spanish.
7
nouncountable
A plant or animal that occurs naturally in an area, as opposed to one that people introduced there.
The red maple is a native of eastern North America and does well in wet soil.
Homeowners who replace their lawns with natives often see more butterflies and songbirds.
Usagea native of a region (a native of eastern North America); in gardening mostly plural: plant natives.
8
originaladjective
Original; in its natural, unaltered state, or making up the original substance of something.
The enzyme works only in its native state; once heat unfolds it, it can no longer do its job.
To study how the protein really behaves, the team kept the cells cold so it would stay in its native form.
UsageMost often in native state or native form: a protein in its native state.
Similaroriginal
Note
Here the word looks back to what a thing was in itself, not where it was born. Older writing used it for the original stuff of something, as in native dust, and Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) speaks of "Native Soile," close to the "by birth" meaning. In science it now names a natural, unaltered state: a protein in its native state keeps the folded shape that lets it work.

Less common meanings

9
nounoffensivedated
A person of aboriginal descent, as distinguished from settlers, colonizers, or their descendants.
Colonial records often described the natives in dismissive terms.
Mail trains are limited to first and second class passengers, but on the mixed trains third class is also provided, and this is patronised exclusively by natives.
1940, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”
UsageUsually avoided today: say Indigenous people, or name the people. Capitalized Native is widely used for peoples of the Americas, as in Alaska Natives.
Oppositesettler, colonist
Note
In colonial writing it could work as an administrative category. O. S. M. Raw's article on the Rhodesia Railways in Railway Magazine (1940) notes third-class carriages "patronised exclusively by natives."
10
inbornadjective
Arising from birth; belonging to a person's inborn nature.
The actor's native charm won over the audience instantly.
She brought a native curiosity to every subject she studied.
Similarinnate, inborn, natural, inherent, instinctive
Oppositeacquired, learned
11
pure (mineral)adjective
Of an element or mineral, found naturally in a pure state rather than combined in a compound.
Prospectors occasionally discover native silver in the region's old mines.
Native sulfur forms around the vents of active volcanoes.
UsageGoes before the element's name: native silver, native gold.
Note
Mineralogists use this word for an element found in nature in its uncombined state rather than locked in a compound. Native gold, platinum and copper can be taken from the ground in metallic form, sometimes alloyed with other metals, with no chemical reduction needed to free the element.
12
adjective
Naturally related or closely connected to something else.
A love of storytelling appears native to every human culture.
The melancholy native to the poet's work pervades each stanza.
UsageFollowed by to: native to childhood. With a place after to, it means where something comes from instead.
Note
A sense of kinship rather than birthplace, and it takes to. Shakespeare's Hamlet has the classic line: "The head is not more native to the heart … Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father."
13
nounUK
An oyster of the species Ostrea edulis, the European flat oyster.

Practice

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Origin

Latin nātus ("born") gave nātīvus, which passed into Old French as natif and from there into Middle English natif, the form English inherited. Naive and neif are doublets of it.