land

plural lands

1. countableuncountableThe part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.

   Most insects live on land.

2. countableuncountableReal estate or landed property; a partitioned and measurable area which is owned and acquired and on which buildings and structures can be built and erected.

   There are 50 acres of land in this estate.

3. countableuncountableA country or region.

   They come from a faraway land.

4. countableuncountableA person's country of origin and/or homeplace; homeland.
5. countableuncountableThe soil, in respect to its nature or quality for farming.

   wet land

   1 more example

   good or bad land for growing potatoes

6. countablein compoundsoftenuncountableRealm, domain.

   I'm going to Disneyland.

   1 more example

   Maybe that's how it works in TV-land, but not in the real world.

7. countableuncountableagricultureThe ground left unploughed between furrows.

   Synonyms: furlong

8. countableuncountableagricultureAny of several portions into which a field is divided for ploughing.

   Synonyms: furlong

9. IrelandcolloquialcountableuncountableA shock or fright.

   He got an awful land when the police arrived.

10. countableuncountablebusinessA conducting area on a board or chip which can be used for connecting wires.
11. countableuncountableOn a compact disc or similar recording medium, an area of the medium which does not have pits.

    Now, assume that the recording is being done with 100 grooves per inch, and that the record groove is .006 inch wide. This means that the land on either side on any given groove in the absence of sound waves is .004 inch.

    1935, H. Courtney Bryson, The Gramophone Record, page 72

12. countableuncountablelifestyleThe non-airline portion of an itinerary. Hotel, tours, cruises, etc.

    Our city offices sell a lot more land than our suburban offices.

13. countableobsoleteuncountableThe ground or floor.

    her selfe vppon the land / She did prostrate

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 7

14. countableuncountablenauticalThe lap of the strakes in a clinker-built boat; the lap of plates in an iron vessel; called also landing.
15. countableuncountableIn 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. countableuncountableballisticsThe space between the rifling grooves in a gun.

       The human eye is a precision instrument. It can detect grooves and lands on a slug more efficiently than any computer.

       2012 November 15, “One Way to Get Off”, in Elementary, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller)

       1 more example

       The FBI maintains a database, the General Rifling Characteristics (GRC) file, which is organized by caliber, number of lands and grooves, direction of twist, and width of lands and grooves, to help an examiner figure out the origin of a recovered bullet.

       2008 August 1, Lisa Steele, “Ballistics”, in Eric York Drogin, editor, Science for Lawyers, American Bar Association, page 16

16. ScotlandcountablehistoricaluncountableA group of dwellings or tenements under one roof and having a common entry.

present singular third person lands · participle present landing · participle past landed · past landed

1. intransitiveTo descend to a surface, especially from the air.

   The plane is about to land.

   Synonyms: alight

2. datedTo alight, to descend from a vehicle.

   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.

   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

3. intransitiveTo come into rest.
4. intransitiveTo arrive on land, especially a shore or dock, from a body of water.

   Tatan and Erhtan are two small islands in the sea southwest of Kinmen.[…]A contingent of some 30 Communist troops tried to land at Erhtan, but were disarmed by Government defenders.

   1981, A Pictorial History of the Republic of China: Its Founding and Development, volume II, Taipei: Modern China Press, →OCLC, page 303, column 1

5. transitiveTo bring to land.

   Use the net to land the fish.

   2 more examples

   It can be tricky to land a helicopter.

   I'll undertake to land them on our coast.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

6. informaltransitiveTo capture or arrest.

   `He told me that he was certain that Coates shot at him. We threw out a drag and landed Coates within an hour.'

   1920 June 28, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 151, column 3

7. transitiveTo acquire; to secure.

   She landed a job at the company.

   3 more examples

   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.

   2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

   Siemens has landed a contract to upgrade signalling on the entire 170km (105-mile) S-Bane suburban network in Copenhagen to pave the way for fully automated trains.

   2024 May 1, “Network News: Danes plan fully automated trains”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 18

   At 30, I landed my first real foothold: an assistant job at a major publishing house.

   2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026

8. slangtransitiveTo succeed in having sexual relations with; to score.

   Too ugly to ever land a chick.

9. transitiveTo deliver (a blow).

   If you land a knockout blow, you’ll win the match.

10. intransitiveTo connect (to arrive at an intended target).

    If the punches land, you might lose a few teeth!

    1 more example

    Vice President J. D. Vance has lashed out at [Gavin] Newsom, telling Fox that the Californian’s attacks aren’t landing, because his trolling “ignores the fundamental genius of President Trump’s political success, which is that he’s authentic”; […].

    2025 August 22, Tom Nichols, “MAGA World Is So Close to Getting It”, in The Atlantic

11. figurativelyintransitiveTo go down well with an audience.

    Some of the comedian's jokes failed to land.

    1 more example

    We told an Amelia Earhart joke yesterday—did not go great with the audience. Someone wrote: "You can't be surprised when an Amelia Earhart joke doesn't land."

    2023 January 13, Anonymous ("Jackal Comment"), 11:08 from the start, in CORRECTIONS Episode 68: Week of Monday, January 9 (Late Night with Seth Meyers), YouTube

1. uncountablelant; urine

1. A surname from Middle English.

   After the success of Secret of Monkey Island (1990), composer Michael Land longed for a more flexible system to integrate his music into a game.

   2012, Peter Moormann, Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance, page 82