# land

Pronunciation: say "LAND" /lænd/

## Noun

1. Ground regarded as property, owned and used for farming, building, or other purposes.
   - Simple: Ground that someone owns, which can be built on or used.
   - _The company purchased land near the river for a new factory._
   - _Her family had farmed the same land for five generations._
2. The solid surface of Earth, not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.
   - Simple: The dry parts of Earth's surface, not covered by sea or other water.
   - _Migrating birds rest wherever they can find land along the route._
   - _From the plane, strips of land appeared between the wide blue lakes._
3. A country or region considered as a particular place, including the country where someone was born or lives.
   - Simple: A country or area, including the country you come from.
   - _The merchants brought silk from a faraway land in the east._
   - _His novels are set in an imaginary land of forests and castles._
10. A realm or domain; a sphere of some particular kind of thing.
   - Simple: An area or world made up of one kind of thing or activity.
   - _The novel drops readers into a strange land of memory and myth._
   - _Since retiring to Florida, my parents live in the land of golf and early dinners._
11. Soil considered in terms of its nature or quality for farming.
   - Simple: The soil, thought about for how good it is for growing crops.
   - _Years of careful rotation kept the land fertile and productive._
   - _Drought had left the land dry and hard to plow._
13. Farming and country life, as opposed to life in towns and cities; usually used as "the land".
   - Simple: Farming and life in the country, not in towns and cities. People usually say "the land".
   - _Tired of office work, the couple sold their condo and went back to the land._
   - _Families who had lived off the land for generations moved to the factory towns._
14. The factor of production, alongside labor and capital, that consists of natural resources such as ground, water, and minerals.
   - Simple: In economics, all the things nature gives us, like ground, water, and minerals, used to make goods.
   - _Classical economists divided the inputs of production into land, labor, and capital._
   - _In a mining economy, land is the scarce input that sets the limit on output._
21. A sudden shock or fright. *(colloquial, Ireland)*
   - Simple: A sudden shock or scare.
   - _The thunderclap gave the children a terrible land._
   - _He got an awful land when the lights suddenly went out._
22. A set of tenements or dwellings housed under one roof and reached through a shared entrance. *(dialectal, Scotland)*
   - Simple: A large old building holding many homes that share one entrance.
   - _Each land along the close rose six stories above the narrow street._
   - _In the Edinburgh of the 1700s, a single fire could sweep through a crowded land and leave dozens of families homeless._

## Verb

4. To come down onto the ground or another surface from the air, or to come to rest somewhere after falling or being thrown.
   - Simple: To come down from the air onto the ground or another surface.
   - _Helicopters can land on a much smaller area than airplanes._
   - _The kite drifted lower and landed gently among the daisies._
5. To succeed in getting or securing something desirable.
   - Simple: To get or win something, often after a lot of effort.
   - _The startup landed a huge investment from a venture fund._
   - _If they play well, the team could land a sponsorship deal._
6. To end the flight of an aircraft or spacecraft by setting it down on the ground or some other surface.
   - Simple: To bring a plane or spaceship down so it stops on the ground or another surface.
   - _Strong crosswinds made it hard to land the jet safely._
   - _The agency landed a robotic probe on the surface of Mars._
7. To end up, or make someone end up, in a particular place or situation, especially an unpleasant one.
   - Simple: To end up in a place or situation, often a bad one, or to make someone end up there.
   - _One bad investment can land a family in debt for years._
   - _After missing the last train, we landed in a cheap motel near the station._
8. To arrive on shore or at a dock from a body of water.
   - Simple: To come ashore from a boat or other water travel.
   - _The troops landed under cover of darkness near the river mouth._
   - _Ferries land at the same pier roughly once an hour._
9. To reach or hit an intended target, especially to strike a blow successfully.
   - Simple: To hit the thing you are aiming at, as in 'land a punch'.
   - _The fighter landed a clean blow to his opponent's ribs._
   - _Strikers who land precise shots tend to win rounds._
12. To bring people or goods ashore from a boat, or to get a hooked fish out of the water and onto the shore or a boat.
   - Simple: To bring people or things onto the shore from a boat, or to pull a caught fish out of the water.
   - _After a long fight, the angler finally landed the marlin._
   - _The trawlers land their hauls at the cannery each evening._
15. To finish a jump or aerial trick by touching down under control.
   - Simple: To finish a jump or trick in the air well, coming down without falling.
   - _Few snowboarders can land a double cork on their first try._
   - _The skater finally landed the quadruple jump that had beaten her all season._
16. To be well received by an audience.
   - Simple: To be received well by the people watching or listening.
   - _Sharp punchlines land best when the timing is exactly right._
   - _The new ad campaign landed with younger viewers far better than expected._
17. To capture or arrest someone. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To catch or arrest someone, such as a criminal.
   - _Months of surveillance helped them land the smuggler at the border._
   - _The raid landed three of the city's most wanted offenders._
18. To win someone over as a sexual partner; to score with them. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To succeed in having sex with someone you wanted.
   - _He spent the whole night at the bar trying to land someone._
   - _He'd been trying to land the woman from the gym for months, and on Saturday she finally went home with him._

## Verb

19. To step down from or get out of a vehicle. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To get down out of a carriage, car, or other vehicle.

## Noun

20. The ground or floor underfoot. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The solid ground or floor under your feet.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The non-flight parts of a travel itinerary, such as hotels, tours, and cruises.
- (noun) On a surface cut with grooves, pits or indentations, such as a millstone, the inside of a rifled gun barrel or a compact disc, the raised or flat part left between them.
- (noun) A conductive area on a circuit board or chip used for connecting wires.
- (noun) The raised ground left unplowed between two furrows.
- (noun) Any of the sections into which a field is divided for plowing.
- (noun) In a clinker-built boat, the overlap of one strake over the next; in an iron vessel, the overlap of plates; also called landing.

## Origin

'Land' comes from Middle English 'lond' or 'land', from Old English 'land', from Proto-Germanic *landą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- meaning 'land, heath'. It is related to Dutch 'land', German 'Land', the Scandinavian 'land', and non-Germanic words like Welsh 'llan' (enclosure) and French 'lande' (heath).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/land (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).