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

With Israel’s borderlands in ruins and hundreds of its citizens taken hostage, the country’s voters could no longer countenance their leader’s quietism, which now looked like a historic blunder. —Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026

Today, there's a tale of two borderlands in the Himalayas. —Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 17 Feb. 2026

Brownsville is part of the Rio Grande Valley Sector, spanning 260 miles of borderland in South Texas. —Lauren Villagran, USA Today, 3 Feb. 2026

Follow jaguars through the borderlands in new documentary Thanks for reading and for subscribing to AZ Climate, the Arizona Republic's weekly environment newsletter. —Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 19 Jan. 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