homeland

/ˌhoʊmˈlænd/

/ˈhʌʊmlənd/

Other forms: homelands

A homeland is the country where a group originally comes from, or where a person was born. If your grandparents and great-grandparents are Greek, you might consider Greece your homeland.

If you were born in Iran and raised in Canada, it might be important to you to think of Iran as your homeland, or the place you and your ancestors come from. In addition to being your birthplace, your homeland holds a lot of your cultural identity. Sometimes homeland is used in a nationalistic or even racist way, emphasizing that only certain ethnic groups are "native" to a certain country. The Old English root, hamland simply meant "enclosed pasture."

Definitions of homeland

1. noun

   the country where you were born
   synonyms: country of origin, fatherland, mother country, motherland, native land

   types:

   old country

   the country of origin of an immigrant

   type of:

   country, land, state

   the territory occupied by a nation