rainland

R1A1I1N1L1A1N1D2

noun

An area, especially in Africa, in which water for growing crops is supplied by rain (as contrasted with irrigated land and with floodland).

Scrabble 9

Meanings

nounrainland (plural rainlands)

plural rainlands

  1. An area, especially in Africa, in which water for growing crops is supplied by rain (as contrasted with irrigated land and with floodland).

    […] about 213,000 acres were irrigated, the rest being rainland and floodland.

    1937, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, page 697
    3 more examples

    Similar numbers of grasshoppers […] invade sorghum crops in the rainlands of Africa north of the equator, […]

    1981, D. J. Aidley, Animal Migration, page 213

    I have, however, argued that planned agrarian change in the rainlands has not taken into account the complexity of the ecosystem, the traditional agricultural and pastoral production systems and the likely impacts that it might have on society, economy and ecology. […] Ecologically the rainlands have been subjected to a drastic degradation […]

    1987, Mohamed Abdel Rahim Mohamed Salih, Agrarian Change in the Central Rainlands, Sudan, page 3

    The amount of irrigated land planted in cotton increased slightly during the war, while rainland acreage declined because of the need to grow more food. The irrigated area under cotton rose from about 231,000 feddans in 1939 to 241,000 in 1945, while the rainland area decreased from 137,000 to only 20,000 feddans. Combined with foodland acreage, the total area under cotton actually declined […]

    2003, M. W. Daly, Imperial Sudan: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium 1934-1956, page 185
Cite this entry
APA

rainland. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rainland

MLA

“rainland.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rainland. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rainland,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rainland.

Source: rainland on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.