Land

Pronunciation

• enPR: lănd, IPA: /lænd/
• Rhymes: -ænd

From Middle English land, lond, from Old English land, lond ("earth, land, soil, ground; defined piece of land, territory, realm, province, district; landed property; country (not town); ridge in a ploughed field"), from Proto-Germanic *landą ("land"), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- ("land, heath"). Cognate with Scots land ("land"), West Frisian lân ("land"), Dutch land ("land"), German Land ("land, country, state"), Swedish land ("land, country, shore, territory"), Icelandic land ("land"). Non-Germanic cognates include Old Irish lann ("heath"), Welsh llan ("enclosure"), Breton lann ("heath"), Old Church Slavonic lędо from Proto-Slavic *lenda ("heath, wasteland") and Albanian lëndinë ("heath, grassland") from lëndë ("matter, substance").

Full definition of land

Noun

1. The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.Most insects live on land.
2. Real estate or landed property; a partitioned and measurable area which is owned and on which buildings can be erected.There are 50 acres of land in this estate.
3. A country or region.They come from a faraway land.
4. A person's country of origin and/or homeplace; homeland.
5. The soil, in respect to its nature or quality for farming.wet land; good or bad land for growing potatoes
6. (often in combination) realm, domain.I'm going to Disneyland.Maybe that's how it works in TV-land, bu not in the real world.
7. (agriculture) The ground left unploughed between furrows; any of several portions into which a field is divided for ploughing.
8. (Irish English, colloquial) A fright.He got an awful land when the police arrived.
9. (electronics) A conducting area on a board or chip which can be used for connecting wires.
10. In a compact disc or similar recording medium, an area of the medium which does not have pits.
11. (travel) The non-airline portion of an itinerary. Hotel, tours, cruises, etc.Our city offices sell a lot more land than our suburban offices.
12. (obsolete) The ground or floor.
• SpenserHerself upon the land she did prostrate.
13. (nautical) The lap of the strakes in a clinker-built boat; the lap of plates in an iron vessel; called also landing.
14. In any surface prepared with indentations, perforations, or grooves, that part of the surface which is not so treated, such as the level part of a millstone between the furrows.
1. (ballistics) The space between the rifling grooves in a gun.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To descend to a surface, especially from the air.The plane is about to land.
2. (dated) To alight, to descend from a vehicle.
• 1859, “Rules adopted by the Sixth Avenue Railway, N. Y.”, quoted in Alexander Easton, A Practical Treatise on Street or Horse-Power Railways, page 108:10. You will be civil and attentive to passengers, giving proper assistance to ladies and children getting in or out, and never start the car before passengers are fairly received or landed.
3. (intransitive) To come into rest.
4. (intransitive) To arrive at land, especially a shore, or a dock, from a body of water.
5. (transitive) To bring to land.It can be tricky to land a helicopter.Use the net to land the fish.
• ShakespeareI'll undertake to land them on our coast.
6. (transitive) To acquire; to secure.
• 2012, May 5, Phil McNulty, Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool, As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.
7. (transitive) To deliver.

Derived terms

Adjective

1. Of or relating to land.
2. Residing or growing on land.

Noun

1. lant; urine