Meaning & use
a farmstead
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Meanings
nouncountable
A farm and the group of buildings on it, thought of as one whole place.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a farmstead, two farmsteads, or the old farmstead.
Patterns
- a remote farmstead
- an isolated farmstead
- live on a farmstead
They bought a small farmstead with a barn, a stable, and a stone house.
From the top of the hill we could see a lone farmstead surrounded by fields.
The old farmstead has been in the same family for four generations.
nouncountable
The main house and yard of a farm, not including the fields.
Grammar: Countable and often used with 'the' when both speakers know which farm is meant.
Patterns
- the farmstead itself
- around the farmstead
- a farmstead of stone and wood
The fields were flooded, but the farmstead stayed dry.
She spent the morning cleaning around the farmstead.
A narrow track leads from the road to the farmstead.
Word forms
| plural | farmsteads |
|---|
Common combinations
- an isolated farmstead
- An isolated farmstead stood at the end of the valley.
- a remote farmstead
- Mail is delivered to remote farmsteads twice a week.
- a traditional farmstead
- They restored a traditional farmstead using local stone.
- on a farmstead
- He grew up on a farmstead in the north.
- the farmstead buildings
- The farmstead buildings date from the 1800s.
Synonyms and how they differ
- farm
- The general word for the land and business; a farmstead stresses the buildings and yard rather than the fields.
- homestead
- A homestead is a house with its land, often in a historical or legal sense; a farmstead is about working farm buildings.
- smallholding
- A smallholding is a small farm, usually British and often worked part-time; a farmstead can be any size.
Word family
Commonly confused: a farmstead or homestead?
a farmstead vs homestead
A homestead is a home and its land, and in US history it also meant land given by the government; a farmstead is simply a farm with its buildings.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'farmstead' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Farmstead' is a countable noun meaning a farm and its buildings, so it fits after 'a lonely' in a scene description. The other options treat it as an object you store, a verb, or food, none of which matches its meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a farmstead”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.