Meaning & use
areal
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Connected with the size or extent of a surface area.
Grammar: Used before nouns such as extent or density.
Patterns
- areal extent
- areal density
Scientists measured the areal extent of the forest fire.
The areal density of the disk determines how much data it holds.
A map showed the areal spread of the flood.
adjectivebefore a nounspecialist
In linguistics, describing a feature shared by neighboring languages in a region rather than inherited.
Grammar: Appears in areal linguistics.
Patterns
- areal feature
- areal linguistics
Areal linguistics studies how languages in the same region influence each other.
Click sounds are an areal feature in parts of southern Africa.
The scholar wrote about areal patterns in the Balkans.
Common combinations
- areal extent
- The areal extent of the ice shrank.
- areal density
- Areal density measures data per unit of surface.
- areal coverage
- Satellites map the areal coverage of crops.
- areal linguistics
- She teaches areal linguistics.
Synonyms and how they differ
- spatial
- Spatial refers to space in general, while areal is specific to surface area.
- regional
- Regional means belonging to a region, whereas areal focuses on measured size or distribution.
- two-dimensional
- Two-dimensional describes anything flat, but areal ties it to the size of a surface.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: areal or aerial? areal or arial?
areal vs aerial
Aerial relates to the air, as in an aerial photograph, while areal relates to area.
areal vs arial
Arial is a typeface name, not related to measurement.
Practice
The report gives the ___ extent of the wetland in square kilometers.
Choose one answer.
Areal extent means the size of the area covered. Aerial means from the air, so it would not describe a measurement in square kilometers.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “areal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.