native

1 adjective (only before noun)

1 COUNTRY your native country, town etc is the place where you were born: a visit by the Pope to his native Poland | They never saw their native land again.

2 native New Yorker/Londoner/Californian etc a person who has always lived in New York, London etc

3 native language/tongue the language you spoke when you first learned to speak: Lara's native language is Swedish.

4 PLANT/ANIMAL growing, living, produced etc in one particular place; indigenous

(+ to): The oregano plant is native to Italy. | the region's native birds

5 ART/CUSTOM related to the people of a country who were the earliest people to live there: the native art of Peru

6 native intelligence/wit etc a quality that you have naturally from birth: native genius

7 go native humorous to behave, dress, or speak like the people who live in the country where you have come to stay or work: I once knew an anthropologist who went native and married a Masai warrior.

2 noun (C)

1 a person who was born in a particular place

(+ of): a native of Texas

2 someone who lives in a place all the time or has lived there a long time

(+ of): Are you a native of these parts?

3 (often plural) a word that is now considered offensive, in former times used by Europeans to mean one of the people who lived in Africa, S. Asia etc before Europeans arrived

4 a plant or animal that grows or lives naturally in a place

(+ of): The bear was once a native of Britain.