Xenial
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Hospitable, especially to visiting strangers or foreigners. uncommon
"Thus then society is not arranged in clans, but in tribes, united by the general sense of a common name, a common abode, a common history, a common religion, and a remote sense of a common tribal stock, without any sense of personal affinity in each individual case. Again, it is curious to observe that the xenial relation was not less vivacious than that of blood."
- 2 Of the relation between a host and guest; friendly. uncommon
Example
More examples"Thus then society is not arranged in clans, but in tribes, united by the general sense of a common name, a common abode, a common history, a common religion, and a remote sense of a common tribal stock, without any sense of personal affinity in each individual case. Again, it is curious to observe that the xenial relation was not less vivacious than that of blood."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ξενία (xenía, “hospitality; relations of hospitality between states or between a person and a state; the status of an alien, i.e., not a citizen”), equivalent to xenia + -al.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.