Alienate

//ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stranger; an alien. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  2. 2
    arouse hostility or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness wordnet
  3. 3
    To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted.

    "The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart."

  4. 4
    make withdrawn or isolated or emotionally dissociated wordnet
  5. 5
    To cause one to feel unable to relate.
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    transfer property or ownership wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign archaic, not-comparable

    "O alienate from God."

Synonyms

All synonyms
estrangeestrangeabalienateabruptaggravatealien

Example

More examples

"In order to conquer the centre, we'll have to alienate the left wing of the party."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English alienat(e) (“deranged; uncertain; sequestred, secluded”), from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“to estrange, alienate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from aliēnus. by surface analysis, alien + -ate. See alien, and compare aliene.

Etymology 2

From a substantivation of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner (“a crazed, mad man, lunatic”).

Etymology 3

Either from the above adjective or directly borrowed from Latin alienātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.