Meaning & use
a land fill
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A large place where waste is buried under layers of earth.
Grammar: Countable when you mean a particular place (a landfill, two landfills); uncountable when you mean the system or material (waste goes to landfill).
Patterns
- go to landfill
- a landfill site
- waste in a landfill
Most of the city's rubbish is taken to a landfill outside town.
Old tires are often buried in a landfill rather than recycled.
The council closed the landfill because it was nearly full.
noununcountable
The practice or process of burying waste in the ground.
Grammar: Uncountable here: no an or plural, as in send waste to landfill.
Patterns
- send something to landfill
- reduce waste to landfill
The company promised to send less plastic to landfill each year.
Burying food waste in landfill produces harmful gas.
Word forms
| plural | landfills |
|---|
Common combinations
- a landfill site
- The landfill site will be covered with soil once it is full.
- go to landfill
- About half of household rubbish still goes to landfill.
- reduce waste to landfill
- New rules aim to reduce waste to landfill by 2030.
- a landfill gas
- Landfill gas can be collected and burned for energy.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- landfilled adjective
- Describing waste that has been buried in a landfill.
Commonly confused: a land fill or landfall?
a land fill vs landfall
Landfall means the moment a ship or storm reaches land, which is very different from a landfill.
Practice
Which sentence uses landfill in the most natural way?
Choose one answer.
Landfill means waste buried in the ground, so rubbish goes to landfill fits. Option 0 confuses it with landfall, and the others use it with meanings it does not have.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a land fill”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.