alienate means estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, alienate ranks #1,466 of 12,954 for Most Malleable Words, #2,749 of 12,954 for Most Elegant Words, #2,795 of 12,954 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,645 of 12,943 for Most Exacting Words.
alienate is pronounced /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/.
Why “alienate” is a great word
To cause someone to feel isolated, estranged, or hostile, often by withdrawing affection or making them feel unable to relate. From Middle English alienat(e), from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō ("to estrange, alienate"), from aliēnus ("belonging to another, foreign"). First recorded in English in the late 14th or early 15th century. Unlike "befriend," which actively fosters companionship, or "reconcile," which restores a broken connection, to alienate is to enact a subtle violence of removal. It is the palpable silence in a shared room, the chill of a turned shoulder in a crowd, and the precise, bureaucratic language of a letter that formally ends a long association—the quiet, domestic art of making a familiar world foreign.
Etymology
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.
adj
- Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign“O alienate from God.”
noun
- A stranger; an alien.
verb
- To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
- 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.”
- To cause one to feel unable to relate.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.