Alien To: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “alien to” when something feels strange, unfamiliar, or outside a person’s experience or customary way of thinking.
Key details
Confusion Familyusage-construction
Rule Familyadjective complement
Termsalien to
Further guidance
Construction
Use “alien to” when something feels strange, unfamiliar, or outside a person’s experience or customary way of thinking.
Style Boundary
This guide covers the adjective construction meaning strange or unfamiliar; it does not collapse legal or extraterrestrial senses of “alien” into the same rule.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Absent From: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Accountable For: Standard Pattern records the directly documented Cambridge construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Acquainted With: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Addicted To: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Adept At: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
Adjacent To: Standard Pattern records the directly documented construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced complement pattern rather than inventing a broader prohibition.
