mainland
UK/ˈmeɪnlænd//ˈmeɪnlənd/
mainland noun: the continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
Noun
mainland (plural mainlands)
- The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
- […]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.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
- You may have not realised when I was using the term mainland Europe, I was excluding the British Isles.2005, comment (not durably archived)
- The principal island of a group.
- Great Britain.
- All of the people I interviewed were from Protestant backgrounds, with proud British traditions. Yet when they set foot on the mainland, they were met at times with jeering, derision and othering from the very people with whom they were raised to believe they had the most in common.2024 February 10, Emma DeSouza, “The most effective cure for Northern Irish unionism? Attitudes in England”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Proper noun capitalized: Mainland
Mainland
- The largest island in the Orkney Islands council area, to the north of Scotland.
- The largest island in the Shetland Islands council area, to the north of both Orkney and Scotland.
- A historical region of British Columbia, British North America, British Empire.
mainland meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
mainland in Hindi
- मुख्य भूमि, मुख्यभूमि
mainland in Tamil
- முக்கியமான பெரிய தரைப்பகுதி, கண்டம், பெருநிலம், பெருந்தரை
mainland in Marathi
- मुख्य भूमी, मुख्य भूभाग
mainland in Urdu
- مین لینڈ, مرکزی سرزمین
More languagesFewer languages
- mainland in Bengali
- মূলভূমি mulbhumi
- mainland in Telugu
- ప్రధాన భూభాగం, ముఖ్య భూభాగం
- mainland in Malayalam
- പ്രധാന ഭൂപ്രദേശം, വൻകര
- mainland in Kannada
- ವಿಸ್ತಾರವಾದ ಭೂಭಾಗ, ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಭಾಗ
- mainland in Punjabi
- ਮੁੱਖ ਭੂਮੀ
- mainland in Gujarati
- મુખ્ય ભૂમિ, મેઇનલેન્ડ, મુખ્યભૂમિ
- mainland in Odia
- ମୁଖ୍ଯ଼ ଭୂମି, ମୁଖ୍ଯ଼ ଭୂଖଣ୍ଡ, ମୁଖ୍ଯ଼ ଭୂଭାଗ
- mainland in Nepali
- मुख्य भूमि, मुख्यभूमि, मुख्य भूभाग
- mainland in Arabic
- يَابِسَة yābisa, بَرّ barr, قَارَّة qārra
- mainland in Malay
- tanah besar
- mainland in Indonesian
- daratan utama
- mainland in Persian
- قاره qârre, خشکی xoški
- mainland in Thai
- แผ่นดินใหญ่ pɛ̀n-din-yài
- mainland in Vietnamese
- đại lục, đất liền
- mainland in Myanmar
- ပြည်မကြီး pranyma.kri:
Examples of mainland in a sentence
- From the top of the lighthouse you can just see the mainland.
- The lighthouse that you can see is on the mainland.
- The officers' actions were regrettable, yes, but there's nothing to be done now but to relocate everyone to the mainland in a calm and orderly manner.
Forms of mainland
| plural | mainlands |
|---|
Origin of mainland
From Middle English mayne londe; equivalent to main + land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land (“mainland”), Faroese meginland (“mainland”), Icelandic meginland (“mainland”).
Words formed from mainland
Questions about mainland
- What does mainland mean?
- Mainland means the continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
- What is mainland in Hindi?
- Mainland in Hindi is मुख्य भूमि, मुख्यभूमि. See Mainland meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is mainland?
- Mainland can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce mainland?
- Mainland is pronounced /ˈmeɪnlənd/ (US).
- What is the plural of mainland?
- The plural of mainland is mainlands.
Words near mainland in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mainland (page history and authors); Mainland (page history and authors); mainland (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mainland (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mainland (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mainland (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mainland.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mainland.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mainland. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.