adjective
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owning land
landed gentry
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consisting of or including land
a landed estate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of landed
before 1000; late Middle English ( see land, -ed 3); replacing Old English gelandod (rare), past participle of *landian to endow with land ( -ed 2 )
Explanation
If someone is landed, it means they own property or acreage, and they probably inherited it. In 17th and 18th century England, owners of country estates were known as the landed gentry. This adjective almost always comes before "gentry" or "aristocracy," referring to an entire category of wealthy people. It's a bit old-fashioned, but you can still call use it for upper-class land owners. Your cousin, lucky enough to have the family estate handed down to him, is a member of the landed gentry. Landed can also describe the land itself, when someone inherits it: "The landed property was about fifty acres."
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.
Since it landed, the 57-episode vertical series, which follows two couples as they face off against a threatening online hacker in drama-fueled one-minute clips, has amassed more than 150 million views.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
It has also landed a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million alongside rivals including Google and OpenAI.
From Barron's • May 28, 2026
Over the years, about 100 stray balls have landed within the boundaries of his home, with some hitting and breaking his roof tiles and others leaving deep dents in his car.
From BBC • May 28, 2026
Vanguard paid for her financial licenses, and she soon landed a better-paid job as a Morgan Stanley sales associate.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
An airplane landed and brought food for us and the other teams.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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.
