# stranger

Pronunciation: US say "STRAYN-jur" /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/; UK say "STRAYN-juh" /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒə(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A person you do not know, who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance.
   - Simple: Someone you do not know, who is neither a friend nor a person you've met.
   - _A stranger knocked on the door asking to use the phone._
   - _She felt safe enough to share her story with a stranger on the train._
2. An outsider or foreigner; a person who comes from elsewhere and does not belong to the local community.
   - Simple: A person from another place or country who does not belong here.
   - _As a stranger in the region, she struggled to follow the local customs._
   - _The border guards questioned every stranger entering the kingdom._
3. A newcomer; a person who has recently arrived somewhere and is new to the place.
   - Simple: A person who has just arrived in a place and is new to it.
   - _Being a stranger to the company, she spent her first week learning everyone's name._
   - _The club welcomes strangers and helps them settle in quickly._
5. A person the speaker actually knows well, addressed jokingly as if unknown, especially after a long absence.
   - Simple: A friend or family member you greet jokingly as if you don't know them, after a long time apart.
   - _Hey, stranger! It's been far too long since we last met!_
   - _He grinned at his cousin and said, "Look who finally showed up, stranger."_
6. A person who is not a party to an act, contract, or title; an intruder or intermeddler who interferes without any legal right.
   - Simple: A person who is not part of a legal deal or contract and has no right to step in.
   - _A stranger to the deed cannot sue to enforce a covenant contained in it._
   - _The judge dismissed the claim because the plaintiff was a stranger to the original contract._
7. A person who has not been admitted to communion or fellowship within a religious community.
   - Simple: A person who is not allowed to join a church group or share in its worship.
   - _A stranger to the faith was not permitted to receive the sacrament._
   - _The elders treated him as a stranger until he was formally admitted to fellowship._

## Adjective

4. Comparative form of strange. — comparative form of strange: more strange
   - Simple: Comparative form of strange. Use it to say one thing is more strange than another.
   - _His behavior seemed stranger the longer they talked._
   - _Few things are stranger than a silent city at noon._

## Noun

8. A person who does not belong to the family or household; a guest or visitor. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A guest or visitor who is not part of the family or household.
9. A superstitious sign believed to foretell a visitor's arrival, such as a stalk floating in a cup of tea or a guttering candle flame. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A small sign, like a leaf in your tea, that is believed to mean a visitor is coming.
   - _A stalk bobbing in his cup was a stranger, foretelling the guest he felt sure would come._
   - _The old woman read a stranger in the guttering candle and tidied the parlor for her visitor._

## Verb

10. To estrange someone; to make a person feel distant or alienated from another. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make someone feel far away from a person they were once close to.
   - _Long silence will stranger even the closest of companions._
   - _Bitter words strangered her from the friends of her youth._

## Origin

From Middle English straunger, from Old French estrangier ("foreign, alien"), which came from Latin extraneus ("foreign, external"), itself from extra ("outside of"). It is related to French étranger and Spanish extranjero ("foreigner"), and it displaced the native Old English fremde.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/stranger (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).