Mainland
nounThe principal continuous landmass of a country or region, as distinct from its islands or offshore territories.
How to spell mainland
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce mainland
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does mainland mean?
- nounThe principal continuous landmass of a country or region, as distinct from its islands or offshore territories.
Mainland in a sentence
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The ferry carries cars from the island back to the mainland every hour.
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After years on a remote isle, they moved to the mainland for better schools.
Where does mainland come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Mainland is a transparent Germanic compound built from two very old English words. The first element 'main' comes from the Old English 'maegen', meaning strength, force, or chief power, the same sense that survives in the phrase 'with might and main'; over time 'main' came to mean 'principal' or 'the largest part of something'. The second element 'land' descends unchanged from Old English 'land', which meant ground, soil, or a country, and has Germanic cousins across Dutch and German. Joined together from around the fifteenth century, the compound described the principal body of land of a country as distinct from its surrounding islands or peninsulas. The spelling is reassuringly literal: it is simply 'main' plus 'land', with no hidden letters, which is why it trips up far fewer writers than its meaning might suggest.
How the word is built
- main (chief, principal)
- land (ground, country)
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