Greenland

American  

[green-luhnd, -land] / ˈgrin lənd, -ˌlænd /

noun

1. a self-governing island belonging to Denmark, located NE of North America: the largest island in the world. About 844,000 sq. mi. (2,186,000 sq. km); about 700,000 sq. mi. (1,800,000 sq. km) icecapped. Godthåb.

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Greenland British  

/ ˈɡriːnlənd /

noun

1. Danish name: Grønland.  Greenlandic name: Kalaallit Nunaat.  a large island, lying mostly within the Arctic Circle off the NE coast of North America: first settled by Icelanders in 986; resettled by Danes from 1721 onwards; integral part of Denmark (1953–79); granted internal autonomy 1979; mostly covered by an icecap up to 3300 m (11 000 ft) thick, with ice-free coastal strips and coastal mountains; the population is largely Inuit, with a European minority; fishing, hunting, and mining. Capital: Nuuk (Godthåb). Pop: 57 714 (2013 est). Area: 175 600 sq km (840 000 sq miles)

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Greenland Cultural  

1. Island lying largely within the Arctic Circle; owned by Denmark but governed locally since 1978. Its native name is Kaballit Nunaat.

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Discover More

Greenland is the largest island in the world. (Australia is larger but is officially a continent, not an island.)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Greenlandish
  adjective
• Greenlander
  noun

Example Sentences

As temperatures warm, ice in the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica melts, and the resulting rise in sea levels slows down Earth’s rotation.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

"It's time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland," he said as he wound up his four-day visit.

From Barron's • May 22, 2026

The protest capped a week in which the US president's special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, made his first trip to the territory, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.

From BBC • May 22, 2026

Since 1993, however, the rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica has become a much larger driver of the accelerating trend.

From Science Daily • May 22, 2026

On an expedition to Greenland in 1930, he set out alone, on his fiftieth birthday, to check out a supply drop.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson