Xenophile
noun /ˈzɛnəfaɪl/ — Someone drawn to foreign people, cultures, and places.
Definition
A person who is attracted to foreign cultures, people, languages, and customs; one who finds the unfamiliar fascinating rather than threatening.
Beyond the definition
Every committed traveller knows the xenophile feeling — the pull toward the unfamiliar, the conviction that the stranger's way of doing things contains something worth understanding. A xenophile doesn't romanticise the foreign naively; they're genuinely curious. It's the opposite of parochialism.
Origin & history
From Greek xenos 'stranger, foreigner' + philos 'loving'. Counterpart to xenophobe (someone who fears or hates foreigners). First used in English in the mid-20th century.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
She was a confirmed xenophile — she'd learnt fragments of twelve languages and planned to continue.
His xenophile instincts meant he always preferred the neighbourhood restaurant to the tourist recommendation.
Being a xenophile in a globalised world is not exotic — it's simply paying attention.
Synonyms
cosmopolitan, internationalist, culturally curious
Antonyms
Related words
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Fictional scene
Chatting in a warm cafe
An adult chats with a friend in a busy, local café, speaking with their hands in a relaxed and genuine way.
A xenophile is someone who finds the unfamiliar fascinating. Sitting in a local, bustling café, they thrive on the exchange of ideas, finding comfort and connection in the community's different, perhaps foreign, ways of living and speaking.
Image credit: Wordspun · AI-generated conceptual illustration