Meaning & use
arable land
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Meaning
noununcountable
Land that is good enough for plowing and growing crops, as opposed to pasture, forest or desert.
Grammar: No plural and usually no article: There is little arable land here.
Patterns
- an area of arable land
Only a small share of the country is arable land because of the mountains.
Farmers lost arable land when the river flooded.
The government wants to protect arable land from new housing estates.
Common combinations
- fertile arable land
- The valley is full of fertile arable land.
- loss of arable land
- Soil erosion causes the loss of arable land.
- protect arable land
- The plan aims to protect arable land from development.
- hectares of arable land
- The farm covers two hundred hectares of arable land.
- scarce arable land
- Scarce arable land makes food costly on the island.
Synonyms and how they differ
- farmland
- Farmland is a general word for any land used for farming, including pasture, while arable land is only for crops.
- cropland
- Cropland is nearly the same, but it names land that is currently growing crops, whereas arable describes the soil's suitability.
- tillage
- Tillage is an older, more technical term and also names the act of plowing.
Opposites
Word family
- arable adjective
- suitable for growing crops
- arability noun
- the quality of being fit for crops
- arable farming noun
- growing crops, not raising livestock
Commonly confused: arable land or pasture?
arable land vs pasture
Pasture is grassland for grazing animals, not for growing crops on plowed ground.
Practice
Because most of the island is rocky, there is very little ___ for growing wheat.
Choose one answer.
Wheat needs soil that can be plowed, which is arable land. Pasture is for grazing animals.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “arable land”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.