mainland

CEFRC1

/ˈmeɪnlənd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The main part of a country, excluding nearby islands.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Great Britain.

Examples

  • The island is cut off far from the mainland.

  • We took a ferry from the island to the mainland.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Also pronounced

  • /-lænd/
  • /mæɪnlænd/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The principal island of a group.

  2. The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.

More examples

In context

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

  • […]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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After a week on the island, they took a ferry back to the blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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