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Idioms about land

    land / fall on one's feet, feet (def. 3).
    see how the land lies, to investigate in advance; inform oneself of the facts of a situation before acting: You should see how the land lies before making a formal proposal.Compare lay of the land.

Origin of land

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch, German, Old Norse, Gothic land; akin to Irish lann “open space,” Welsh llan “church” (originally “enclosure”), Breton lann “heath.” See lawn1

OTHER WORDS FROM land

landlike, adjectivere·land, verbun·der·land, noun

Other definitions for land (2 of 3)

Land
[ land ]
/ lænd /

noun
Edwin Herbert, 1909–91, U.S. inventor and businessman: created the Polaroid camera.

Other definitions for land (3 of 3)

-land

a combining form of land: hinterland; lowland.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

WORDS THAT USE -LAND

What does -land mean?

The combining formland is used like a suffix meaning “land.” It is occasionally used in everyday and technical terms.

The form –land comes from Old English.

Examples of -land

An example of a word you may have encountered that features –land is borderland, “land forming a border or frontier.”

The border portion of the word means, literally, “border,” from Middle English bordure. As we have seen, the suffix –land means “land.” Borderland literally means “land on the border.”

What are some words that use the combining form –land?

What are some other forms that –land may be commonly confused with?

Not every word that ends with the exact letters –land, such as bland, is necessarily using the combining form –land to denote “land.” Learn why bland means “dull” at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

Given the meaning of the combining form –land, what does lowland mean?

How to use land in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for land (1 of 3)

land
/ (lænd) /

noun
verb

Derived forms of land

landless, adjectivelandlessness, noun

Word Origin for land

Old English; compare Old Norse, Gothic land, Old High German lant

British Dictionary definitions for land (2 of 3)

Land1
/ (lænd) /

noun
Edwin Herbert. 1909–91, US inventor of the Polaroid Land camera

British Dictionary definitions for land (3 of 3)

Land2
/ German (lant) /

noun plural Länder (ˈlɛndər)
  1. any of the federal states of Germany
  2. any of the provinces of Austria
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with land

land

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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