hinterland
/ˈhɪntə(ɹ)ˌlænd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.90 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Anything vague or ill-defined, especially something that is ill understood.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In West Wales it has never been possible until recently to exploit the magnificent natural harbour of Milford Haven, for there was no industrial hinterland."
- "In the film, Hanks is a veteran traversing the Texas hinterlands during the Reconstruction period when he stumbles upon a lost young white girl (Helena Zengel) who only speaks Kiowa, and is forced to undergo a dangerous journey to bring the orphan to her family."
- "Near-synonym: shadow"
- "Near-synonym: shadowland"
- "This approach utilizes concepts such as naming, describing, contrasting and equating to access the hinterland between structure and meaning, and to map out the subtle ways in which texts can naturalise the ideology of the perfect female form."
Etymology
Borrowed from German Hinterland, from hinter (“behind”) + Land (“land”), cognate to English hinder (“back, rear”) + land. First used in English in 1888 by George Chisholm in his work Handbook of Commercial Geography originally as hinderland, but the current spelling (following German) became more popular. The term is characteristic of a thalassocratic analysis of space (from the point of view of a nation with maritime supremacy, such as 19th-century Britain).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Hinterland
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- British usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
backwater
sticks
Isolated town
bump in the road
jerkwater
jerk-water
jerkwater town
one-horse town
wide spot in the road
Isolated place
arse end of nowhere
back of beyond