estranged means having become a stranger, of one who formerly was close, as a relative, friend, lover, or spouse. It carries an Arena rating of 1581, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, estranged ranks #1,153 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,862 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,810 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,947 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
Why “estranged” is a great word
Having become a stranger, as a relative, friend, or spouse, through the development of indifference or hostility. From the Old French estranger ("to treat as a stranger"), from the Latin extraneus ("foreign, external"), first recorded in English 1545–55. Unlike "alienated," which focuses on a broader isolation from a group or ideals, or "separated," which denotes a formal or physical division, "estranged" carries the specific, slow-motion tragedy of a once-intimate bond gone cold. It is the silence across a holiday table, the wedding photograph turned face-down in a drawer, and the careful, mutual avoidance in a familiar street—the quiet geography where a loved one once lived, now rendered foreign territory.
adj
- Having become a stranger, of one who formerly was close, as a relative, friend, lover, or spouse.e.g.“He managed to become estranged from all of his friends.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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