mainland

English

Etymology

From main +‎ land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land (“mainland”), Faroese meginland (“mainland”), Icelandic meginland (“mainland”).

Pronunciation

(GenAm) IPA: /ˈmeɪ̪nlənd/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

Wikipedia mainland (plural mainlands)

1. The main landmass of a country or continent
   • 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

     You may have not realised when I was using the term mainland Europe, I was excluding the British Isles.

Translations

the main landmass of a country or continent

• Arabic: يابسة (ar) (yaabisa) f, بر (ar) (barr) m, قارة (ar) (qaarra) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大陸 (cmn), 大陆 (cmn) (dàlù), 內地 (cmn), 内地 (cmn) (nèidì)

• Danish: fastland (da) n
• Dutch: vasteland (nl) n
• Faroese: meginland (fo) n, fastland (fo) n
• Finnish: manner (fi)
• French: continent (fr) m
• German: Festland (de) n, Kontinent (de) m
• Greek: ηπειρωτική χώρα f

• Icelandic: meginland (is) n, fastland (is) n
• Irish: mórthír (ga) f
• Italian: continente (it) m
• Japanese: 本土 (ja) (ほんど, hondo), 内地 (ja) (ないち, naichi)
• Malagasy: kontinènta (mg)
• Maori: otiki (mi)
• Norwegian: fastland (no) n
• Romanian: continent (ro)
• Russian: материк (ru) (materík) m, континент (ru) (kontinént) m
• Spanish: continente (es) m
• Swahili: bara (sw)
• Swedish: fastland (sv) n