stranger

The word "stranger" usually means a person you do not know. If someone is unknown to you and you have no personal relationship with them, that person is a stranger. This is the most common use. You might sit next to a stranger on a bus, ask a stranger for the time, or warn a child not to go off with strangers.

The word can also suggest someone who is new to a place, group, or situation. In that sense, a stranger may feel like an outsider because the people, rules, or customs are unfamiliar. A person who has just moved to a town may feel like a stranger there until they begin to know people.

"Stranger" is sometimes used in a more figurative way too. If you say someone is "no stranger to hard work," you mean hard work is familiar to them. If a person is "a stranger to fame," it means fame is something they have not known. The word can even describe emotional distance, as when two people who were once close begin to feel like strangers to each other.

In everyday English, though, the central idea stays the same: a stranger is someone outside your circle of familiarity. The word often carries a sense of distance, caution, curiosity, or the chance of a new connection, depending on the situation.