Word
hinterland
Phoneticshin·ter·land
US/ˈhɪntɝˌɫænd/
UK/hˈɪntələnd/
Definitions
01inland region
n. the area of land that is behind a coast or far from the main cities.
n. the remote or inland region lying behind a coast or a district served by a port or city.
“The small port depends on the hinterland for its supply of agricultural goods.”
“The economic development of the coastal city was inextricably linked to the resources extracted from its vast agricultural hinterland.”
Academic
Usage
Often used in the singular with 'the'.
Synonyms
Antonyms
02remote area
n. a place that is far away from where most people live and is not very developed.
n. a remote or undeveloped area located far from urban centres.
“They spent weeks travelling through the snowy hinterland of the north.”
“The explorers ventured deep into the frozen hinterland, far beyond the reach of any established communication networks.”
Literary
Synonyms
03hidden character or knowledge
n. the parts of a person's life, mind, or a subject that are not well known.
n. the unknown, unexplored, or obscure areas of a person's character, history, or a field of knowledge.
“The biography explores the intellectual hinterland that influenced the writer's famous novels.”
“The interview failed to reveal anything of the politician's cultural hinterland, focusing instead on immediate policy concerns.”
Literary · Formal
Teaching tip
This figurative sense is common in British political journalism to describe a person's interests outside of their main job.
Antonyms
Real-World Examples
“Port cities like London and Hamburg enjoyed greater access to imported grains, while prices rose sharply in the hinterlands.” “Alder and ash pollen indicated vegetation associated with riverbanks and seashores, which occur along the coast and in the nearby hinterland.” Etymology
Borrowed from German Hinterland, from hinter (“behind”) + Land (“land”), cognate to English hinder (“back, rear”) + land. First used in English in 1888 by George Chisholm in his work Handbook of Commercial Geography originally as hinderland, but the current spelling (following German) became more popular. The term is characteristic of a thalassocratic analysis of space (from the point of view of a nation with maritime supremacy, such as 19th-century Britain).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/hinterland