Mainlander
name, noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Someone who lives on the mainland.
- 2 A person from mainland China, as opposed to someone from Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.
"Since many factories have not been repaired or are operating at low capacity, there is much unemployment. Repatriation of overseas Taiwanese has aggravated the problem, which the government has made no real effort to solve. During the war the Japanese built at Chiayi a large factory for making high-octane gas. Now it is closed, and one-fifth of the town's population are out of work. It is not surprising that at Chiayi last month there was fierce fighting against the mainlanders."
- 3 Someone who lives in mainland Europe, as opposed to the British Isles.
- 1 Alternative letter-case form of mainlander (“a person from mainland China”). alt-of
"In Pan-ch’iao of Taiwan county, people gathered at the railway station on the morning of February 28 and began beating Mainlanders or rounding them up and assembling them in one place."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Since many factories have not been repaired or are operating at low capacity, there is much unemployment. Repatriation of overseas Taiwanese has aggravated the problem, which the government has made no real effort to solve. During the war the Japanese built at Chiayi a large factory for making high-octane gas. Now it is closed, and one-fifth of the town's population are out of work. It is not surprising that at Chiayi last month there was fierce fighting against the mainlanders."
Etymology
From mainland + -er.
Related phrases
More for "mainlander"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.