Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A major landmass especially when considered in relation to nearby islands or attached peninsulas.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands.
  • noun The principal island of a group: as, the mainland of Orkney.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The continent; the principal land; -- opposed to island, or peninsula.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The main landmass of a country or continent

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From main +‎ land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land ("mainland"), Faroese meginland ("mainland"), Icelandic meginland ("mainland").

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