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

• Greenlander
  noun
• Greenlandish
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Greenland

However, if Antarctic glacial earthquakes are of much lower magnitude than those in Greenland, the global network may not detect them.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

The Greenland glacial earthquakes are relatively large in magnitude.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and did not gain home rule until 1979.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Now, as global trade norms dissolve and the U.S. threatens to annex neighboring Greenland, for some here, joining the EU looks like a smart geopolitical insurance policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

As a result, ships built and manned in Spain itself were able to sail to the West Indies; there was nothing equivalent to the Greenland bottleneck that had throttled Norse colonization.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond