land
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: lănd
ipa: /lænd/
ipa: [ɫeə̯nd]
ipa: [ɫɛə̯nd]
ipa: [ɫɛə̯nd]
ipa: [læ(ː)nd]
ipa: [lænd]
ipa: [leːnd]
ipa: [lænd]
ipa: [land]
rhymes: -ænd
Forms: form: lands
form: landing
form: landed
form: landed
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Germanic *landą
Proto-West Germanic *land
Old English land
Middle English lond
English land
From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *land, from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“land, heath”).
Cognate with Scots laund (“land”), North Frisian lun, Lön, lönj (“land”), Saterland Frisian Lound (“land”), West Frisian lân (“land”), Limburgish Land, landj, Laïnt (“land”), Dutch land (“land, country”), Luxembourgish and German Land (“land, country, state”), Vilamovian łaond (“land”), Danish, Elfdalian, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish land (“land, country, shore, territory”). Non-Germanic cognates include Old Irish lann (“heath”), Welsh llan (“enclosure”), Breton lann (“heath”), Old Church Slavonic лѧдо (lędo), from Proto-Slavic *lędo (“heath, wasteland”), French lande (“heath”) and Albanian lëndinë (“heath, grassland”).
Senses: examples: text: The plane is about to land.
glosses: To descend to a surface, especially from the air.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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
glosses: To alight, to descend from a vehicle.
glosses: To come into rest.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1981, A Pictorial History of the Republic of China: Its Founding and Development, volume II, Taipei: Modern China Press, →OCLC, page 303, column 1:
glosses: To arrive on land, especially a shore or dock, from a body of water.
examples: text: It can be tricky to land a helicopter.
text: Use the net to land the fish.
text: I'll undertake to land them on our coast.
ref: 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]:
glosses: To bring to land.
examples: text: `He told me that he was certain that Coates shot at him. We threw out a drag and landed Coates within an hour.'
ref: 1920 June 24, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 151, column 3:
glosses: To capture or arrest.
examples: text: She landed a job at the company.
text: 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.
ref: 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
text: 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.
ref: 2024 May 1, “Network News: Danes plan fully automated trains”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 18:
glosses: To acquire; to secure.
examples: text: Too ugly to ever land a chick.
glosses: To succeed in having sexual relations with; to score.
examples: text: If you land a knockout blow, you’ll win the match.
glosses: To deliver.
raw_tags: of a blow
examples: text: If the punches land, you might lose a few teeth!
text: 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”; […].
ref: 2025 August 22, Tom Nichols, “MAGA World Is So Close to Getting It”, in The Atlantic:
glosses: To connect (to arrive at an intended target).
raw_tags: of a punch
examples: text: Some of the comedian's jokes failed to land.
text: 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."
ref: 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:
glosses: To go down well with an audience.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: black land
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: crash-land
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: hard-land
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: hard land
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land down
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land in someone's lap
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land on
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land on one's bridge
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land up
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land upon
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: land with
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: reland
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: soft-land
sense: terms derived from the verb land
word: soft land