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Foreign vs Abroad - What's the difference?

foreign | abroad |

As nouns the difference between foreign and abroad

is that foreign is foreigner while abroad is countries or lands abroad.

As an adjective foreign

is located outside a country or place, especially one's own.

As an adverb abroad is

at large; widely; broadly; over a wide space.

As a preposition abroad is

throughout, over.

foreign

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
    • foreign''' markets''; '''''foreign soil
  • Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
    • foreign''' car''; '''''foreign''' word''; '''''foreign''' citizen''; '''''foreign trade
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-24, volume=408, issue=8850, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Guardian warriors and golden eggs , passage=Foreign' companies love to complain about doing business in China.
  • Relating to a different nation.
    • foreign''' policy''; '''''foreign navies
  • Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
    • foreign''' body''; '''''foreign''' substance''; '''''foreign''' gene''; '''''foreign species
  • Alien; strange.
    • It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Jonathan Swift)
    • This design is not foreign from some people's thoughts.
  • (label) Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Shakespeare)
    • Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, / That he ran mad and died.
  • From a different one of the states of the United States, as of a state of residence or incorporation.
  • Belonging to a different organization, company etc.

    • Synonyms

    * (from a different country) overseas, international * (strange) alien, fremd * (in a place where it does not belong) extraneous

    Antonyms

    * (from a different country) domestic * (not characteristic) native * (native to an area) indigenous

    Derived terms

    {{der3, foreign body , foreign correspondent , foreign country , , foreign debt , foreign exchange , foreignize , foreignization , foreign key , foreignness , foreigner , foreign tongue , foreign policy , Foreign Office}}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) foreigner
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=August 30 , author= , title=White House Extremely Worried About People Saying Dumb Stuff on 9/11 , work=Gawker citation , page= , passage=The messaging instructions come in two sets: one for domestics, another for the foreigns . }}

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words English words not following the I before E except after C rule

    abroad

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (dated) At large; widely; broadly; over a wide space.
    • A tree spreads its branches abroad .
  • * 1718 , , Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions
    • Again: The lonely fox roams far abroad , / On ?ecret rapine bend and midnight fraud;
  • (senseid)(dated) Without a certain confine; outside the house; away from one's abode.
    • to walk abroad
  • * , Frederic Warne and Company (publisher, 1818), [http://books.google.com/books?id=0DgIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA207&dq=abroad page 207], entry for 1650 July 7:
    • I went to St. James', where another was preaching in the court abroad .
  • * 1900 , , Chapter I:
    • Was it so irreconcilable, Warwick wondered, as still to peal out the curfew bell, which at nine o'clock at night had clamorously warned all negroes, slave or free, that it was unlawful for them to be abroad after that hour, under penalty of imprisonment or whipping?
  • Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2013, date=April 9, author=Andrei Lankov, title=Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff., work=New York Times, url=http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/opinion/stay-cool-call-north-koreas-bluff.html?_r=0
    • , passage=A closer look at North Korean history reveals what Pyongyang’s leaders really want their near-farcical belligerence to achieve — a reminder to the world that North Korea exists, and an impression abroad that its leaders are irrational and unpredictable. }}
  • * (rfdate) :
    • Another prince
  • (dated) Before the public at large; throughout society or the world; here and there; moving without restriction.
  • * (rfdate) Mark 1-45:
    • He went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter.
  • Not on target; astray; in error; confused; dazed.
  • Played elsewhere than one's home grounds; as in a sport's team.

    • Synonyms

    * overseas

    Derived terms

    * be abroad

    Noun

  • (rare) Countries or lands abroad.
  • * 1929 , , widely (and variously) quoted:
    • I hate abroad', ' abroad ’s bloody.
  • * in , Volumes 3–4, page 180:
    • I am not, however, a xenophobe: obviously, abroad has some good ideas—arranged marriages, violent revolutions and so on.
  • * 2001 March 13, :
    • That is not a xenophobic remark. I am a xenophiliac; I love abroad . I love foreigners. I just do not like the way that they are running the European agricultural policy.

    Derived terms

    * near abroad

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Throughout, over.

    • References

    * "Now abroad has entered English as a noun" - The New York Times , [http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/22/magazine/on-language-the-near-abroad.html "ON LANGUAGE; The Near Abroad"], William Safire, May 22, 1994, quoting Christian Caryl

    Anagrams

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