MAINLAND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mainland mean? 

• MAINLAND (noun)
  The noun MAINLAND has 1 sense:

1. the main land mass of a country or continent; as distinguished from an island or peninsula

  Familiarity information: MAINLAND used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAINLAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The main land mass of a country or continent; as distinguished from an island or peninsula

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("mainland" is a kind of...):

dry land; earth; ground; land; solid ground; terra firma (the solid part of the earth's surface)

Instance hyponyms:

Continent (the European mainland)

 Context examples 

But I had suffered him to depart, and he had directed his course towards the mainland.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We brought up just where the anchor was in the chart, about a third of a mile from each shore, the mainland on one side and Skeleton Island on the other.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Warming winter temperatures led to rapid environmental changes that allowed the northward expansion of Neolithic farmers toward mainland Europe, and the rapid population of the continent.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)

There is little evidence of walrus ivory imports to mainland Europe after 1400.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Camellia sinensis is native to mainland South and Southeast Asia, but is today cultivated across the world, in tropical and subtropical regions.

(Camellia sinensis, NCI Thesaurus)

The incredibly interesting and unique biota that occurred on this island was totally eradicated at some point as the island reconnected to mainland Eurasia and more cosmopolitan animals were able to access it.

(Fossil discovery adds to understanding of how geological changes affected evolution of mammalian life, National Science Foundation)

A country in western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cameroon and Gabon; composed of a mainland portion and five inhabited islands.

(Equatorial Guinea, NCI Thesaurus)

Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the mainland, which was about five miles distant.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)