mainland
See also: Mainland
English
Etymology
From Middle English mayne londe; equivalent to main + land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land (“mainland”), Faroese meginland (“mainland”), Icelandic meginland (“mainland”).
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmeɪ̪nlənd/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
mainland (plural mainlands)
- The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:
- ...I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water.
- 2005, comment (not durably archived):
- You may have not realised when I was using the term mainland Europe, I was excluding the British Isles.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:
- The principal island of a group.
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Translations
the main landmass of a country or continent
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Anagrams
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