mainland

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mainland^¹

/ˈmeɪnlənd/ US
/-lænd/ US
/ˈmeɪnlænd/ UK
/mæɪnlænd/ Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

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

noun 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.
The principal island of a group.
Northern Ireland 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.
New Zealand South Island.

Mainland^²

proper noun

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.
historical A historical region of British Columbia, British North America, British Empire.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: continental, chinese, hong, continent, africa, korean, china, metropolis, korea, taiwan, kong, macao, guangdong, guangzhou, kowloon, xiamen

Translations

Every language

noun the main landmass of a country or continent

Español	continente
한국어	본토 bonto, 대륙 daeryuk
日本語	本土 hondo, 内地 naichi, 大陸 tairiku
中文	大陸 /大陆 dàlù, 內地 /内地 nèidì, 本土 běntǔ
Kiswahili	bara
Português	continente
Français	continent
Deutsch	Festland, Kontinent
Italiano	continente
Ελληνικά	ηπειρωτική χώρα ipeirotikí chóra
Română	continent
Русский	матери́к materík, контине́нт kontinént
Tiếng Việt	đại lục, đất liền
العربية	يَابِسَة yābisa, بَرّ barr, قَارَّة qārra

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MLA

"mainland." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mainland. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mainland. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mainland

Chicago

"mainland." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mainland.

BibTeX

@misc{mainland_2026,
  title = {mainland},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mainland},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}