heartland

Noun

heartland (plural heartlands)

1. Synonym of heart (“the seat of the affections or love”).

   Synonyms:

   heart

2. The interior part of a region, especially when contrasted with coastal parts or when regarded as particularly powerful or significant.
   • [R]ound the Pole all three powers lay claim to enormous territories which in fact are largely uninhabited and unexplored: but the balance of power always remains roughly even, and the territory which forms the heartland of each super-state always remains inviolate.1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia...
   • Israel intercepted a missile fired by Hezbollah near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, an unprecedented attack by the militant group that reached deep into the country’s commercial heartlands and marked a new escalatory step in the conflict between the two sides.2024 September 25, Irene Nasser, Dana Karni, Helen Regan, Sophie Tanno, “Israel intercepts Hezbollah ballistic missile near Tel Aviv in first such attack”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01...
3. (specifically) In the geopolitical theory of the English geographer Halford John Mackinder (1861–1947): the interior of the world island comprising north-central Eurasia regarded as politically powerful.
4. (Singapore, in plural, specifically) Residential districts and planning areas outside the city centre; the new towns of Singapore collectively.
   • Those in the HDB [Housing and Development Board] heartland will be able to vote in the airconditioned comfort of their community centres […]2003, Anais [pseudonym], soc.culture.singapore (Usenet)
   • Take heart, small-time shopkeepers in the heartlands.2001 March 16, Alfred Dass, Today, Singapore: Mediacorp Press, →OCLC, page 8
5. (US, attributive, often, specifically) The states in the centre of the United States, chiefly regarded as politically and socially conservative; also, the people living in such states collectively.

   Synonyms:

   Middle America

6. A region or part of a region particularly associated with or significant for a characteristic, such as an activity, a faith, support for a political party or other organization, etc.
   • The home counties are the Conservative heartland.
   • We stayed in the heartland of the French wine-growing regions.