inland

American  

[in-luhnd, in-land, -luhnd] / ˈɪn lənd, ˈɪnˌlænd, -lənd /

adjective

1. pertaining to or situated in the interior part of a country or region.

   inland cities.

2. British. domestic or internal.

   inland revenue.

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adverb

1. in or toward the interior of a country.

noun

1. the interior part of a country.

inland British  

adjective

1. of, concerning, or located in the interior of a country or region away from a sea or border

2. operating within a country or region; domestic; not foreign

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noun

1. the interior of a country or region

adverb

1. towards or into the interior of a country or region

Other Word Forms

• inlander noun

Etymology

Origin of inland

before 950; Middle English, Old English; see in- ¹, land

Explanation

Inland means far away from the ocean, or in the very middle of a country. If you were born and grew up in Kansas, you're familiar with inland living. The opposite of inland is coastal. When you travel to the rocky coast of Maine or the soft sandy beaches of Florida, you're far from being inland — you return to your inland home town when you fly back to Gary, Indiana. Inland comes from the Old English inn lond, "land around the mansion of an estate," and it began to mean "land far from the coast" in the 16th century.

Example Sentences

Iraq can send some of its northern crude through a pipeline to Turkey, but most of the country’s oil production comes from its southern fields, which have no inland connection to the pipeline.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026

Larger than 22,000 football fields, it handles transit each year of around 267 million tonnes of goods and is used by around 20,000 seagoing vessels and 50,000 inland vessels, according to its website.

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

The Salton Sea — California’s largest inland lake at more than 340 square miles — has been shrinking for decades.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026

This includes several separate strikes on the key Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk as well as an attack on the nearby inland Kirishi oil refinery.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

Zheng was shuffling inland in his ragged clothes, tired and weak, barely able to stand.

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook