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• mainland
  mainland

  noun

  the principal land of a country, region, etc., as distinguished from adjacent islands or a peninsula.
• Mainland
  Mainland

  noun

  the largest of the Shetland Islands. About 200 sq. mi. (520 sq. km).

mainland

¹ American  

[meyn-land, -luhnd] / ˈmeɪnˌlænd, -lənd /

noun

• mainlands
  plural

1. the principal land of a country, region, etc., as distinguished from adjacent islands or a peninsula.

   the mainland of Greece.

2. any part of or all of the continental United States or conterminous United States, especially from the perspective of someone in a geographically detached U.S. state or territory, such as Hawaii or Guam.

   I’m not sure where on the mainland Jasmine went to college, but it may have been Milwaukee.

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Mainland ² American  

[meyn-land, -luhnd] / ˈmeɪnˌlænd, -lənd /

noun

1. the largest of the Shetland Islands. About 200 sq. mi. (520 sq. km).

2. Pomona.

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Mainland ¹ British  

/ ˈmeɪnlənd /

noun

1. an island off N Scotland: the largest of the Shetland Islands. Chief town: Lerwick. Pop: 17 550 (2001). Area: about 583 sq km (225 sq miles)

2. Also called: Pomona.  an island off N Scotland: the largest of the Orkney Islands. Chief town: Kirkwall. Pop: 15 315 (2001). Area: 492 sq km (190 sq miles)

3. a South Islanders' name for South Island

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mainland ² British  

/ ˈmeɪnlənd /

noun

1. the main part of a land mass as opposed to an island or peninsula

2. a particular landmass as viewed from a nearby island with which it has close links, such as Great Britain as viewed from Northern Ireland or continental Australia as viewed from Tasmania

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mainlander
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mainlands
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mainland

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English; see origin at main ¹, land

Explanation

A mainland is the land covering a continent, as opposed to islands off its coast. When you take the ferry back after visiting Block Island, you can say you're "returning to the mainland." The rocky coast of the mainland might make for a difficult landing in your rowboat — or you might enter a race that requires you to swim from the mainland to a tiny island and back. You could also refer to "mainland United States" to distinguish it from the island state of Hawaii, and its residents might even call you a mainlander when you vacation there.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mainland Mainland mainlands

Last year, exactly zero hurricanes hit the U.S. mainland, which is kind of a bizarre blessing, although we’ve had dead-quiet hurricane seasons before.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026

The work allegedly included arranging meetings between Iranian defense officials and Chinese suppliers and using companies in mainland China and Hong Kong to buy parts to make engines for Shaheds, such as aluminum alloy castings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

The territories have a special arrangement within the free-travel Schengen zone, meaning people cannot travel onwards to mainland Spain without border checks.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

It is now spreading across Australia, most recently killing more than 1,000 crested terns and a long-nosed fur seal, the first detection in a mainland mammal.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026

At first they refused, not because of the time and effort it would take to get Caroline to the mainland every Saturday, but because there was no money.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

Meanwhile, Shen Yu-chung, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations involving Beijing, said Monday that the Chinese actions were a new kind of “gray zone” activity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

“Everybody is concerned that China’s strong demands are going to end up hurting Taiwan,” said Liang Wen-chieh, deputy head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

"Beijing's intention, in short, is to internalise the cross-strait issue, treating it as a domestic matter for China, with foreign intervention prohibited," Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liang Wen-chieh said Thursday.

From Barron's ● Apr. 5, 2026

Mainland seabird colonies and other coastal species may become increasingly vulnerable.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026

Mainland Australia’s 300,000 hunter-gatherers were more numerous and less isolated than the Tasmanians but still constituted the smallest and most isolated human population of any of the continents.

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

Zoologists provide evidence that fewer animal species live on islands than on nearby mainlands.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

The Berlin-based ethnographer Alexa Clay, who studied change agents in her book, “The Misfit Economy,” talks about mainlands, islands and peninsulas.

From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2016

The marsupials of Australia, the finches on the Galápagos, and many species on the Hawaiian Islands are all found nowhere else but on their island, yet display distant relationships to ancestral species on mainlands.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013

Almost all fishing is now carried out at the surface or on the bottoms of the continental shelves that jut from the world's mainlands.

From Time Magazine Archive

As an afterthought, he added, “I think,” above the page, as if to signal his last point of departure from the mainlands of biological and theological thought.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• continent