homeland

noun

SayHOHM-landUS/ˈhoʊmˌlænd/UK/ˈhəʊmˌlænd/

5 meanings of homeland

1
nouncountable
The country someone thinks of as their home.
Like the place you always call 'home,' even when you are far away.
Many people who move away still dream of returning to their homeland.
After years working abroad, he felt a deep pull toward his homeland.
Similarmotherland, fatherland, country, home
Note
2
nouncountable
The country where someone was born.
Like the place where your life's story first began.
His homeland is Brazil, where he was born and spent his early childhood.
Children who flee very young may barely remember their homeland, the land of their birth.
Similarbirthplace, motherland, home, fatherland
Note
3
nouncountable
The country where someone lives.
Like the country your address is in right now.
Sweden became her homeland after she settled there for work many years ago.
For tax purposes, your homeland is wherever you currently live.
Similarhome, country
4
nouncountable
The land that an ethnic group has lived in for a very long time.
Like an area a community has farmed and lived on for hundreds of years.
The Sami homeland stretches across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.
Local people fought to protect their homeland from mining companies.
Similarterritory, land, heartland
5
nounhistoricalSouth Africacountable
An area that South Africa's government once set aside only for black people under apartheid.
Her grandparents were forced to move to a homeland far from the city where they worked.
Whole families lost their jobs when they were relocated to a distant homeland.
Similarbantustan
Note

Practice

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Origin

From the words home and land put together.