acre
nounUK /ˈeɪ.kə/ · US /ˈeɪ.kɚ/
Etymology
From Middle English acre, aker, from Old English æcer (“field where crops are grown”), from Proto-West Germanic *akr, from Proto-Germanic *akraz (“field”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros (“field”). Doublet of agriculture. Cognate with Scots acre, aker, acker (“acre, field, arable land”), North Frisian ecir (“field, a measure of land”), West Frisian eker (“field”), Dutch akker (“field”), German Acker (“field, acre”), Norwegian åker (“field”) and Swedish åker (“field”), Icelandic akur (“field”), Latin ager (“land, field, acre, countryside”), Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós, “field”), Sanskrit अज्र (ájra, “field, plain”).
8 senses
- 1An English unit of land area (symbol: a. or ac.)…
- 2An area of 10,240 square yards or 4 quarters.
- 3Any of various similar units of area in other systems.
- 4A wide expanse.
- 5A large quantity.
- 6A field.
- 7The acre's breadth by the length, English units of…
- 8A duel fought between individual Scots and Englishmen in…
An English unit of land area (symbol: a. or ac.) originally denoting a day's ploughing for a yoke of oxen, now standardized as 4,840 square yards or 4,046.86 square metres.
- Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
Historical An area of 10,240 square yards or 4 quarters.
Any of various similar units of area in other systems.
Informal, Plural normally A wide expanse.
- I like my new house—there’s acres of space!
Informal, Plural normally A large quantity.
Obsolete A field.
Obsolete The acre's breadth by the length, English units of length equal to the statute dimensions of the acre: 22 yd (≈20 m) by 220 yd (≈200 m).
Obsolete A duel fought between individual Scots and Englishmen in the borderlands.
- Synonyms
25 terms
day's math, demath, feddan, morgen, arpent, arpen, pose, Morgen, cawney, cawny, bigha, Irish acre, collop, plantation acre, juger, jugerum, Scottish acre, Scots acre, Scotch acre, acair, Welsh acre, cover, cyfair, erw, stang- Derived terms
57 terms
acreable, acreage, acre breadth, acre brede, acred, acre-dale, acre foot, acre-foot, acreful, acre-inch, acre-land, acre lengh, acre length, acreless, acreman, acreme, acre money, acreocracy, acre's breadth, acre shot, acre's length, acre-staff, all over hell's half acre, black acre, Blackacre, broadacre, broad acres, Castle Acre, church acre, Cornish acre, Cunningham acre, English acre, fool's acre, foreacre, Fouracre, geld-acre, God's acre, green acre, hectacre, Irish acre, Lehigh Acres, long acre, multiacre, nanoacre, plantation acre, Scots acre, Scottish acre, South Acre, starve-acre, statute acre, stave-acre, tenantry acre, Welsh acre, West Acre, white acre, Whiteacre, Woodacre- Related terms
- acorn, Greenacre, wiseacre, international acre, north forty, US survey acre, Weights and measures, Hufe