native

adj

1. Belonging to one by birth.

   “This is my native land.”

   “English is not my native language.”

   “I need a volunteer native New Yorker for my next joke…”

   “In my natyf language I wyl not opres, / More of her werke, for it is obscure; / Who wyl therof knowe all the perfeytnes / In phylosophy he shall fynde it ryght sure, / Whyche all the trouth can to hym discure.”

   “The Language I haue learn’d these forty yeares (My natiue English) now I must forgo.”

2. Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from prehistoric times.

   “What are now called ‘Native Americans’ used to be called Indians.”

3. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of Native (of or relating to the native inhabitants of the Americas, or of Australia).
4. Born or grown in the region in which it lives or is found; not foreign or imported.

   “a native inhabitant”

   “native oysters or strawberries”

   “Many native artists studied abroad.”

5. Which occurs of its own accord in a given locality, to be contrasted with a species introduced by humans.

   “The naturalized Norway maple often outcompetes the native North American sugar maple.”

6. Pertaining to the system or architecture in question.

   “This is a native back-end to gather the latest news feeds.”

   “The native integer size is sixteen bits.”

   “cloud native, crypto native”

7. Occurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form.

   “native aluminium”

   “native salt”

8. Arising by birth; having an origin; born.

   “Anaximander's opinion is, that the gods are native, rising and vanishing again in long periods of times.”

9. Original; constituting the original substance of anything.

   “native dust”

   “Must I thus leave thee Paradise? thus leave Thee Native Soile, these happie Walks and Shades, Fit haunt of Gods?”

10. Naturally related; cognate; connected (with).

    “The head is not more native to the heart, […] Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.”

11. (not-comparable)Aboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

    “[…] when the Treaty of Tordesillas (in Portuguese, Tordesilhas) gave the disgruntled Portuguese the land mass now known as Brazil; and leads us all the way into the twenty—first century, with hosts of unsettled Native land claims […]”

12. (Canada, US, not-comparable)Aboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

    “Therefore, in 1885 Congress passed the Major Crimes Act whereby jurisdiction in the case of seven major crimes (the list of crimes was later expanded) occurring on Native lands was placed in the hands of federal courts.”

13. (Australia, New-Zealand, not-comparable)Aboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

    “He did not ask the Council to sanction the removal of all restrictions on Native lands, but simply asked that such lands as are to be rated under this Bill should have their titles freed in so far as to enable the Native owners to lease those lands and obtain some benefit therefrom.”

14. (South-Africa, not-comparable)Aboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

noun

1. A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.
2. A person of aboriginal descent, as distinguished from a person who was or whose ancestors were foreigners or settlers/colonizers. Alternative letter-case form of Native (aboriginal inhabitant of the Americas or Australia).

   “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.”

   “Dr John Reid, a historian called to testify for Mr Marshall, distinguished between the fur trade at the truckhouses and a smaller scale trade between natives and settlers: "It seems that there were native persons who were selling small amounts […]"”

   “As for the wars between natives and settlers, far from having “ceased,” they would continue well into the twentieth century, and over much the same things that had always sparked them—trade, land, and settler arrogance.”

3. A native speaker.
4. A native plant or animal.
5. An oyster of species Ostrea edulis.
6. An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

   “[…] cachet, Amazon Natives have succeeded in attracting an impressive degree of international support. The catastrophic attrition of Natives in Brazil raises the fundamental question of why the Portuguese took Africans there at all. […]”

7. (Canada, US)An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)
8. (Australia, New-Zealand)An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)
9. (South-Africa, dated, offensive, possibly)An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

   “Thunderstorms have been more frequent, and I regret to say during one last week a Native kraal was struck by lightning, the electric fluid killing three head of cattle; several Natives in a hut received a shock, but happily no further injury.”