homeland
Americannoun
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one's native land.
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a region created or considered as a state by or for a people of a particular ethnic origin.
the Palestinian homeland.
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any of the thirteen racially and ethnically based regions created in South Africa by the South African government as nominally independent tribal ministates to which Black people were formerly assigned.
noun
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the country in which one lives or was born
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the official name for a Bantustan
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of homeland
Explanation
A homeland is the country where a group originally comes from, or where a person was born. If your grandparents and great-grandparents are Greek, you might consider Greece your homeland. If you were born in Iran and raised in Canada, it might be important to you to think of Iran as your homeland, or the place you and your ancestors come from. In addition to being your birthplace, your homeland holds a lot of your cultural identity. Sometimes homeland is used in a nationalistic or even racist way, emphasizing that only certain ethnic groups are "native" to a certain country. The Old English root, hamland simply meant "enclosed pasture."
Vocabulary lists containing homeland
Human Geography - Middle School
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Human Geography - High School
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The Middle East and Central Asia - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
ICE did not dispute Nguyen's allegations, and insisted in a statement to AFP that third-country agreements "are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people."
From Barron's • Jul. 7, 2026
They transformed the unimaginable horrors that began with their theft from their homeland into constitutional principles expansive enough to protect people they would never know and generations they would never live to see.
From Slate • Jul. 2, 2026
And they may never be able to safely return to their homeland.
From BBC • Jul. 1, 2026
William Foo, a self-described beef noodle connoisseur, has sampled versions in Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, Thailand and his homeland of Malaysia.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
Thanks to their wet-climate crops inherited from their West African homeland, the Bantu were able to farm in wet areas of East Africa unsuitable for all those previous occupants.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
