Meanings
nounfamiliar stranger (plural familiar strangers)
plural familiar strangers
- social psychologyA stranger who is nonetheless recognized by another from regularly sharing a common physical space such as a street or bus stop, but with whom one does not interact.
The familiar stranger is someone we meet every morning at the bus stop or at the campus, but we have never talked with.
2018, Davide Spallazzo, Ilaria Mariani, Location-Based Mobile Games: Design Perspectives, Springer, →ISBN, page 39
Origin
Coined by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1972.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
familiar stranger. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familiar%20stranger
MLA
“familiar stranger.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familiar%20stranger. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “familiar stranger,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familiar%20stranger.
Source: familiar stranger on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.