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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

The large island of Madagascar, about 250 miles east of the African mainland, offers a famous example.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

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

Mainland Chinese visitors to Japan tumbled 60.7 percent in January year-on-year, figures showed Wednesday, in the continued fallout from the countries' diplomatic spat.

From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026

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

From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026

In Mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 18% for the year, marking its strongest performance since 2019, after reaching its highest closing level in a decade in August.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025

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

The marsupials of Australia, the finches on the Galápagos, and many species on the Hawaiian Islands are all unique to their one point of origin, yet they display distant relationships to ancestral species on mainlands.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

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 British had decided to get the pro-Axis revolt there in hand while the invasion of Crete gave them a breather on Middle Eastern mainlands.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the usual experience of archaeologists, inventions are supposed to flow from mainlands to islands, and small peripheral societies aren’t supposed to contribute revolutionary advances to the rest of the world.

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

Related Words

• continent