terra firma
Continental land, as distinguished from islandsContinental land, as distinguished from islands.
» Carl was happy to be back on terra firma after the boating trip.
Karl war nach der Bootsfahrt froh, wieder festen Boden unter den Füßen zu haben.
Meaning
3 senses(uncountable)Continental land, as distinguished from islands.
Near-synonym: mainland
(colloquial, uncountable)Land, as opposed to water or air.
Near-synonyms: dry land, solid ground
fester Boden
(idiomatic, uncountable)Familiar territory (in a figurative sense); real-world concerns.
Near-synonym: solid ground
It's nice to be back on terra firma after a long session of analyzing the philosopher's abstruse theories.
- the solid part of the earth's surface
Examples
2 sentencesCarl was happy to be back on terra firma after the boating trip.
deKarl war nach der Bootsfahrt froh, wieder festen Boden unter den Füßen zu haben. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Taking risks may land you on terra incognita and make you long to plant your feet back on terra firma.
Translations
6 languagesOrigin
Learned borrowing from Latin terra firma (“solid land”).Learned borrowing from Latin terra firma (“solid land”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
7 synonyms- the solid part of the earth's surface:landdry landearthgroundsolid ground
Antonyms
4 antonymsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable