land
noun
any part of the earth's surface not covered by a body of water; the part of the earth's surface occupied by continents and islands.
land
1 American
[land]
/ lænd /
noun
-
lands
plural
-
any part of the earth's surface not covered by a body of water; the part of the earth's surface occupied by continents and islands.
Land was sighted from the crow's nest.
-
an area of ground with reference to its nature or composition.
arable land.
-
an area of ground with specific boundaries.
to buy land on which to build a house.
-
rural or farming areas, as contrasted with urban areas.
They left the land for the city.
-
Law.
-
any part of the earth's surface that can be owned as property, and everything annexed to it, whether by nature or by the human hand.
-
any legal interest held in land.
-
-
Economics. natural resources as a factor of production.
-
a part of the surface of the earth marked off by natural or political boundaries or the like; a region or country.
They came from many lands.
-
the people of a region or country
-
Audio. the flat surface between the grooves of a phonograph record.
-
a realm or domain.
the land of the living.
-
a surface between furrows, as on a millstone or on the interior of a rifle barrel.
-
Scot. a tenement house.
verb (used with object)
-
lands,
present (3rd person singular)
-
landed,
past participle, past
-
landing
present participle
-
to bring to or set on land.
to land passengers or goods from a ship; to land an airplane.
-
to bring into or cause to arrive in a particular place, position, or condition.
His behavior will land him in jail.
-
Informal. to catch or capture; gain; win.
to land a job.
-
Angling. to bring (a fish) to land, or into a boat, etc., as with a hook or a net.
verb (used without object)
-
lands,
present (3rd person singular)
-
landed,
past participle, past
-
landing
present participle
-
to come to land or shore.
The boat lands at Cherbourg.
-
to go or come ashore from a ship or boat.
-
to alight upon a surface, as the ground, a body of water, or the like.
to land on both feet.
-
to hit or strike the ground, as from a height.
The ball landed at the far side of the court.
-
to strike and come to rest on a surface or in something.
The golf ball landed in the lake.
-
to come to rest or arrive in a particular place, position, or condition (sometimes followed byup ).
to land in trouble; to land up 40 miles from home.
verb phrase
idioms
-
land / fall on one's feet, feet.
-
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.
Land
2
American
[land]
/ lænd /
noun
-land
3
American
land
1
British
/ lænd /
noun
-
the solid part of the surface of the earth as distinct from seas, lakes, etc
-
-
ground, esp with reference to its use, quality, etc
-
( in combination )
land-grabber
-
-
rural or agricultural areas as contrasted with urban ones
-
farming as an occupation or way of life
-
law
-
any tract of ground capable of being owned as property, together with any buildings on it, extending above and below the surface
-
any hereditament, tenement, or other interest; realty
-
-
-
a country, region, or area
-
the people of a country, etc
-
-
a realm, sphere, or domain
-
economics the factor of production consisting of all natural resources
-
the unindented part of a grooved surface, esp one of the ridges inside a rifle bore
-
the prevailing conditions or state of affairs
verb
-
to transfer (something) or go from a ship or boat to the shore
land the cargo
-
(intr) to come to or touch shore
-
to come down or bring (something) down to earth after a flight or jump
-
to come or bring to some point, condition, or state
-
(tr) angling to retrieve (a hooked fish) from the water
-
informal (tr) to win or obtain
to land a job
-
informal (tr) to deliver (a blow)
Land
2
British
/ lant /
noun
Land
3
British
/ lænd /
noun
land
More Idioms
Usage
What does -land mean? The combining form -land is used like a suffix meaning “land.” It is occasionally used in everyday and technical terms. The form -land comes from Old English.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
landsimple
-
landssimple
-
have landedperfect
-
has landedperfect
-
am landingprogressive
-
are landingprogressive
-
is landingprogressive
-
have been landingperfect progressive
-
has been landingperfect progressive
Past
-
landedsimple
-
had landedperfect
-
was landingprogressive
-
were landingprogressive
-
had been landingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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 lawn 1
Explanation
Use the noun land to talk about the solid ground under your feet. It's nice to put your feet on dry land after a long trip in a sailboat. People who are afraid of flying are usually overjoyed to land on the land after hours in the sky — land is also a verb meaning "to settle down on the ground." You can use the word land, as well, to describe a government or ruler's territory: "He rules over the land between those mountains and the rocky coast." The words for land are the same in English, German, and Dutch, as the root is the Germanic landom.
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.
See Examples For:
At his Pecan Island home, on raised stilts on 7 acres of land, Miller produced a printed-out list of pro-aerospace bills that Landry recently signed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
"I personally am not afraid of war at all because this is our land," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
They are building the site in a coastal area near land that is called Pecan Island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
They can provide storms with extra moisture and energy, and can intensify heatwaves on land in some coastal regions by reducing the cooling effect of sea breezes.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
Plus, a table and five chairs that Father bought from a carpenter, a fellow land rusher.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Last month, Dawn Buckingham, who leads the General Land Office, sent a cease and desist letter to CBP and a federal contractor she said had illegally cleared GLO-owned land in Presidio County.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
Land monetization should also support earnings, with recent deals expected to boost 2H profit, she reckons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The news sent shares of listed Tata companies plunging and has led to questions over what lies ahead for the gigantic salt-to-steel conglomerate that owns Air India, Tata Steel and Jaguar Land Rover.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Travers said Owen "never anticipated" the damage that would be done to Jaguar Land Rover by the negative publicity resulting from his story.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
“But once I’ve paid the Hetsnickle, I’m off to Land o’ Pumpkins.
From "Invisible Inkling" by Emily Jenkins
"We have large, sizable, fertile -land and good water," says Shihab.
From Time Magazine Archive
Shells, colour of, affected by light. -from Van Diemen's land. -land, extinct, at St. Helena. -particles of, drifted by the wind at St. Helena.
From Volcanic Islands by Charles Darwin
Historic gardens are "really on the front line of climate change", said Drew Bennellick, the Heritage Fund's head of lands, seas and nature policy, and "the changes are happening actually quite quickly now".
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
For most of the 20th century, the federal government managed, and frequently mismanaged, the energy resources on tribal trust lands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Olsen: The final episode really lands it so well as far as being both funny and scary and also the way that it sets up a next season, which happily is happening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The toppings are market-flexible, too: Use whatever chèvre or goat cheese you find, whether it crumbles into little pillows or lands in soft clouds, and turn a leftover hunk of cornbread into crisp, salty crumbs.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
She helped the jackalope royal family keep peace in their lands.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
It departed Riga airport at 05:50 GMT and appears to have landed at around 07:04 GMT, according to data from FlightRadar24.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
A single mother from Trinidad landed a six-figure deal for a Random House memoir.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
They worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission that explored Saturn and landed a small probe in 2005 on Titan’s surface that fed back data for 72 minutes before it conked out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
The couple landed a $100 million deal with Netflix and another worth around $20 million at Spotify, according to The Wall Street Journal reporting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
His head swiveled around again until his gaze landed on Ma’s quilt hanging on the wall behind his desk.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Jack Tucker descends from the rafters inside L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre like a kamikaze crash landing into his big moment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
The so-called Twin Dragons exercises have featured thousands of American and South Korean forces carrying out a beachfront landing at a South Korean coastal city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
That would suggest that the Kremlin's message of 'keep calm and carry on' isn't landing.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
US President Donald Trump showed off a giant new helicopter landing pad at the White House on Wednesday, the latest in a series of construction projects, as he seeks to leave his mark on Washington.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
But landing a man on the moon raised a tremendous number of questions.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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.
