Adjective

(en adjective)

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…

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

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

The native peoples of Australia are called aborigines.

.

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.

(biology, of a species) Which occurs of its own accord in a given locality, to be contrasted with a species introduced by man.

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

(computing, of software) 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.

(mineralogy) Occurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form; native aluminium, native salt.

Arising by birth; having an origin; born.

* (rfdate) (Cudworth)

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

Original; constituting the original substance of anything.

native dust

(Milton)

Naturally related; cognate; connected (with).

* (rfdate) (Shakespeare)

The head is not more native to the heart, / Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

Adjective

(en-adj)

Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age; very old.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’}}

Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.

* {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion

, chapter=2 citation , passage=Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)

, title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}

(label) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.

(obsolete) Experienced; versed.

* Berners

Though [he] was the youngest brother, yet he was the most ancient in the business of the realm.

(obsolete) Former; sometime.

* Alexander Pope

They mourned their ancient leader lost.