hinterland
noun
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When you're dealing with geography, it helps to know your hinterland from your umland. In the late 19th century, geographer George Chisholm took note of the German word Hinterland (literally "land in back of") and applied it specifically to the region just inland from a port or coastal settlement. (Chisholm spelled the word hinderland, but English speakers eventually settled on hinterland.) Early in the 20th century, another geographer adopted the German Umland ("land around") to refer to the territory around an inland town. What hinterland and umland have in common is a reference to a region economically tied to a nearby city. Nowadays, hinterland has a less technical use as well—it can be used for land that is simply out in the sticks. It can also be applied figuratively.
Examples of hinterland in a Sentence
Seth Emerson, New York Times, 7 Dec. 2025
Established in the sixteenth century, So developed several resistance camps in the hinterland, where militias were trained to repel attacks from Portuguese slavers and their local African allies.
—Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025
While a succession of treaties and opaque power-sharing deals have determined who rules in Kinshasa, the violence in the eastern hinterlands has never stopped.
—Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
If Washington would not acknowledge what was happening in the hinterland, then the hinterland would come to Washington.
—David McWilliams, Fortune, 16 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hinterland
Cite this Entry
“Hinterland.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hinterland. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.
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hinterland
noun
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