land bridge

See also: landbridge

English

WOTD – 20 January 2026

The Isthmus of Panama is a land bridge (sense 1) which appeared 3 million years ago, closing the Central American Seaway. This led to the Great American Interchange, in which animals and plants from North America colonized South America, and vice versa.

Etymology

From land (noun) +‎ bridge (noun).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈlænd ˌbɹɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

land bridge (plural land bridges)

2. (biology, geography) An isthmus or other land connection between landmasses, chiefly one which existed during prehistoric times, by which it is theorized that animals and plants were able to spread from one landmass to another.
3. (rail transport, road transport) A relatively fast rail or road route over land, especially one for transporting goods.
   • 2021 December 29, Philip Haigh, “Rail’s Role in Unifying Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, in Rail, number 947, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 25:

     His reference to waves of lorries on the A55 that match ferry schedules may become dated. Until very recently, the A55 formed part of a land bridge between Ireland and continental Europe. However, when Britain left the European Union, ferries started to ply a direct sea link from Ireland, […]

Alternative forms

• landbridge, land-bridge

Derived terms

• De Geer Land Bridge

Translations

isthmus or other land connection between landmasses

• Afrikaans: landbrug
• Arabic: جسر يابسة ?
• Basque: lur-zubi ?
• Belarusian: перашыек m (pjerašyjek)
• Bengali: ভূ-সেতু (bhu-śetu)
• Catalan: pont terrestre m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陸橋 / 陆桥 (zh) (lùqiáo)

• Danish: landbro c
• Dutch: landbrug (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: terponto
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kannas (fi), maakannas
• French: pont terrestre m
• German: Landbrücke (de) f
• Greek: χερσαία γέφυρα f (chersaía géfyra)
• Hebrew: גשר יבשתי ?
• Hindi: ज़मीनी पुल ? (zamīnī pul)
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: landbrú
• Indonesian: jambatan darat
• Irish: droichead talún m
• Italian: ponte continentale m
• Japanese: 陸橋 (ja) (りっきょう, rikkyō)
• Kannada: ಭೂ ಸೇತುವೆ (kn) (bhū sētuve), ನೆಲ ಸೇತುವೆ (kn) (nela sētuve)
• Korean: 육교(陸橋) (yukgyo)
• Malay: jambatan darat
• Persian: پل خشکی
• Polish: pomost lądowy m
• Portuguese: ponte terrestre f
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: переше́ек (ru) m (perešéjek)
• Sinhalese: බිම් සේතුව (bim sētuwa)
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Southern Altai: перешеек (perešeek)
• Spanish: puente terrestre m
• Swedish: landbrygga (sv) c, landförbindelse c
• Tamil: இணைநிலம் (iṇainilam)
• Thai: สะพานแผ่นดิน
• Turkish: kara köprüsü
• Ukrainian: сухопу́тний міст m (suxopútnyj mist)

relatively fast rail or road route over land, especially one for transporting goods

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陸運走廊 / 陆运走廊 (lùyùn zǒuláng)

• Finnish: maareitti
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: landförbindelse c
• Yakut: билии (bilii)

Further reading

• land bridge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• land bridge (rail) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• land bridge (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “land-bridge, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025.
• “land bridge, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• bladdering, Bridgeland