mainland

English Online Dictionary. What means mainland‎? What does mainland mean?

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/

Noun

mainland (plural mainlands)

1. The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.
   • 2005, comment (not durably archived):

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

2. The principal island of a group.
3. (Northern Ireland) Great Britain.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mainland on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• almandin