Word.ws English Dictionary

land of the living

land of the living proper noun: the mortal world, as opposed to the afterlife.

Proper noun

the land of the living

  1. The mortal world, as opposed to the afterlife.
  2. (humorous) Awakeness, especially after a long and deep sleep.
    • Once I was back in the land of the living and my leg cast had been removed, my main aim in life was to get fit.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 157
    • The transition from serene slumber to head-thumping hangover is one of life's harshest experiences. […] Pancake was now fast arriving in the land of the living.2012 September 12, Andy Dunn, Ungentlemanly Conduct, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 3

Origin of land of the living

Calque of Biblical Hebrew חַיִּים בְּאֶרֶץ from Psalm 27:13. Similar phrases are also found in other religions and mythologies, such as the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.

Questions about land of the living

What does land of the living mean?
Land of the living means the mortal world, as opposed to the afterlife.
What part of speech is land of the living?
Land of the living is a proper noun.

Words near land of the living in the dictionary

  1. Land of Steady Habits
  2. Land of the Ascendant Sun
  3. Land of the Dragon
  4. land of the free
  5. Land of the Leal
  6. land of the living
  7. Land of the Long White Cloud
  8. Land of the Morning Calm
  9. Land of the Red Dragon
  10. Land of the Rising Sun
  11. land on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: land of the living (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “land of the living.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/land_of_the_living. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.