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

• border
• frontier
• march

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

Armed resistance to the junta is broadly defined by two types of group: Those that emerged in response to the coup, and ethnic armed organizations that were already fighting for autonomy in Myanmar’s borderlands. —Emily Fishbein, Hpan Ja Brang, The Dial, 17 Apr. 2025

Situated in the borderlands of high-performance, Mercedes-AMG E 53 is an exceptional everyday executive sedan with plenty of knockout punch. —Mark Ewing, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2025

The cosmic shoreline is probably less of a tidy fence and more of a wild borderland, said Joshua Krissansen-Totton (opens a new tab), a planetary scientist at the University of Washington. —Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 12 Mar. 2025

The festival’s documentary award went to The Landscape and the Fury by Nicole Vögele, a doc about the Bosnia-Croatia borderlands. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Mar. 2025

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