as in soil
the solid part of our planet's surface as distinguished from the sea and air after that nightmarish storm, the sailors were grateful to reach terra firma

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of terra firma At approximately 5 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, the civilian astronauts returned to their seats for their journey back to terra firma. Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 29 June 2025 And boy did the terrain change while crawling up, along, and down steep unpaved terra firma. Peter Nelson, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025 Helium-3 is rare on terra firma, but is thought to be abundant in the regolith of the Moon. Paul Ridden may 27, New Atlas, 27 May 2025 Sydney Chandler, daughter of Kyle Chandler, stars as a young woman who must respond when a spacecraft carrying the deadliest being in the galaxy crash-lands on terra firma. Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 19 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for terra firma
Recent Examples of Synonyms for terra firma
Noun
  • Derby County had done the same 24 hours earlier, leaving Norwich, Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday as the remaining clubs yet to triumph on home soil.
    Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The primary sources of heavy metal contamination in the cow’s environment, said Akinleye, are feed, water and soil.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 22 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Consult your local land-grant university programs or the National Weather Service for guidance.
    Benjamin Vogt, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Oct. 2025
  • The owners of Maple Flats say an issue over a land access agreement with a different school in the neighborhood is responsible for the potential loss of the orchard.
    Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 20 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • While shares were able to make up ground on Friday, the stock ended the week down more than 5%.
    Alex Harring, CNBC, 20 Oct. 2025
  • But all the drinking, gambling, and prostitution was above ground and out in the open.
    JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 20 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Among seismic sports television changes during the past 50 years, the NBA’s new media rights deal, one that officially begins this week, isn’t quite as earth-shaking as CBS losing the NFL to Fox in 1994 or ABC losing Monday Night Football in 2005.
    Barry Jackson Updated October 21, Miami Herald, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Similar to finding that planets do not orbit the earth, the search for economics anomalies requires searching for empirical facts that cannot (easily) be explained using the standard economic model where everyone chooses by optimizing and makes no systematic mistakes.
    Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Terra firma.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/terra%20firma. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

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