borderland

noun

bor·​der·​land ˈbȯr-dər-ˌland 

1

a

: territory at or near a border

b

: fringe sense 3a

lives on the borderland of society

2

: a vague intermediate state or region

the borderland between fantasy and reality

Synonyms of borderland

• border

Examples of borderland in a Sentence

in the borderland between sleeping and waking

He describes adolescence as the tumultuous borderlands between childhood and adulthood.

Recent Examples on the Web

American patriotism; native, Spanish and Mexican roots On a Sunday afternoon in early May, troupes of dancers in San Elizario, Texas, turned the town plaza into a stage for a reenactment of 500 years of borderlands history. — Lauren Villagran, USA Today, 28 June 2026

And in Istria, especially Croatian Istria but also Dubrovnik and across the borderlands of Slovenia and northeastern Italy, Malvasia takes a very different form. — Layne Randolph, Forbes.com, 27 June 2026

Residents of borderlands are by definition bilingual; their cultures mixed and distinctive. — Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 24 June 2026

From the Neolithic rock art of what is now Libya to ancient Egypt, China and India, to medieval and Renaissance Europe, creatures at borderlands of what was taken to be civilization were represented as cynocephalic, that is, humans with dog heads. — Literary Hub, 10 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1811, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

borderland

noun

bor·​der·​land ˈbȯrd-ər-ˌland 

1

: territory at or near a border : frontier

2

: an unclear condition or region separating two clearly different ones

the borderland between sleeping and waking