mainland

See also: Mainland

English

Etymology

From Middle English mayne londe; equivalent to main +‎ land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land (“mainland”), Faroese meginland (“mainland”), Icelandic meginland (“mainland”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪnlənd/, /-lænd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪnlænd/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /mæɪnlænd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

mainland (plural mainlands)

1. The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     […] 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 (not durably archived):

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

   • 2019 January 29, Melvin Konner, “A Bold New Theory Proposes That Humans Tamed Themselves”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 9 July 2019:

     Other examples of nonhuman self-domestication in the wild exist—for instance, the Zanzibar red colobus monkey diverged from the mainland African red colobus in similar ways during its island isolation—but bonobos are the closest and most relevant to us.

2. The principal island of a group.
3. (Northern Ireland) Great Britain.
   • 2024 February 10, Emma DeSouza, “The most effective cure for Northern Irish unionism? Attitudes in England”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     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.

Derived terms

• mainland China
• mainland Chinese
• mainland clouded leopard
• mainlander
• mainland Europe
• mainlandization
• mainland Japan

Translations

the main landmass of a country or continent

• Arabic: يَابِسَة f (yābisa), بَرّ m (barr), قَارَّة f (qārra)
• Armenian: ցամաքամաս (hy) (cʻamakʻamas)
• Azerbaijani: materik
• Belarusian: мацяры́к m (macjarýk), кантыне́нт m (kantynjént), кантынэ́нт m (kantynént)
• Bengali: মূলভূমি (mulbhumi)
• Bulgarian: континент (bg) m (kontinent)
• Burmese: ပြည်မကြီး (pranyma.kri:)
• Catalan: continent (ca) m, terra ferma f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大陸 / 大陆 (zh) (dàlù), 內地 / 内地 (zh) (nèidì), 本土 (zh) (běntǔ)

• Cornish: tir meur m, dor bras m
• Czech: pevnina (cs) f
• Danish: fastland n
• Dutch: vasteland (nl) n
• Esperanto: ĉeflando
• Estonian: manner (et)
• Faroese: meginland n, fastland n
• Finnish: manner (fi)
• French: continent (fr) m
• Georgian: კონტინენტი (ḳonṭinenṭi), მატერიკი (maṭeriḳi)
• German: Festland (de) n, Kontinent (de) m
• Greek: ηπειρωτική χώρα f (ipeirotikí chóra)

  Ancient Greek: ἤπειρος f (ḗpeiros)

• Icelandic: meginland (is) n, fastland n
• Indonesian: daratan utama
• Ingrian: mantere, maanselkä
• Irish: mórthír f, tír mór m, míntír f
• Italian: continente (it) m
• Japanese: 本土 (ja) (ほんど, hondo), 内地 (ja) (ないち, naichi), 大陸 (ja) (たいりく, tairiku)
• Khmer: ដីគោក (km) (dəy kook)
• Korean: 본토 (ko) (bonto), 대륙 (ko) (daeryuk)
• Lao: ແຜ່ນດິນໃຫຍ່ (phǣn din h)
• Latin: continens (la) f
• Latvian: sauszeme (lv) f
• Lithuanian: sausuma f
• Macedonian: контине́нт m (kontinént)
• Malagasy: kontinènta
• Malay: tanah besar
• Manx: cheer vooar f
• Māori: otiki, mokoroa, tuawhenua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fastland (no) n

• Occitan: continent (oc) m
• Persian: قاره (fa) (qârre), خشکی (fa) (xoški)
• Polish: ląd stały m, kontynent (pl) m
• Portuguese: continente (pt) m
• Romanian: continent (ro)
• Russian: матери́к (ru) m (materík), контине́нт (ru) m (kontinént)
• Sardinian: continente m
• Scots: mainland
• Scottish Gaelic: tìr-mòr m, mòr-thìr f
• Slovak: pevnina f
• Slovene: celina (sl) f, kontinent (sl) m
• Spanish: continente (es) m
• Swahili: bara (sw)
• Swedish: fastland (sv) n
• Thai: แผ่นดินใหญ่ (pɛ̀n-din-yài)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: матери́к m (materýk), контине́нт (uk) m (kontynént)
• Uzbek: materik (uz)
• Vietnamese: đại lục (vi), đất liền (vi)
• Welsh: tir mawr m
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• mainland on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• almandin