Meaning & use
fallow land
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablespecialist
Farmland that is left unplanted for a season or more so the soil can recover its fertility.
Grammar: Uncountable: some fallow land, not a fallow land.
Patterns
- leave land fallow
- fallow land for a season
The farmer let one field lie as fallow land this year.
Fallow land often grows weeds that are later ploughed into the soil.
Rotating crops with fallow land keeps the soil healthy.
noununcountablefigurative
Land that is not currently in use, such as unfarmed or unbuilt ground waiting for a purpose.
Grammar: A looser sense, often in planning or property talk.
Patterns
- fallow land in something
The city has acres of fallow land that could become parks.
Developers eyed the fallow land by the river.
Fallow land beside the highway turned into a wildflower meadow.
Common combinations
- leave land fallow
- Farmers sometimes leave land fallow to restore nutrients.
- acres of fallow land
- There are acres of fallow land on the edge of town.
- fallow land period
- A fallow land period can last one season or longer.
- plough fallow land
- They plough fallow land in early spring.
- fallow land use
- The council discussed fallow land use for housing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- idle land
- Idle land is simply unused, while fallow land is left unplanted on purpose for a farming reason.
- uncultivated land
- Uncultivated land has never been farmed or is not worked now, and may not be resting at all.
- wasteland
- Wasteland suggests barren, useless ground, which is much more negative than fallow land.
- set-aside
- Set-aside is land farmers are paid not to cultivate under certain policies.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fallow land or fallow deer?
fallow land vs fallow deer
Fallow deer is a type of deer with spotted coats, and is unrelated to unplanted land despite the shared word.
Practice
The farmer decided to leave the north field ___ this year so the soil could recover.
Choose one answer.
Fallow means left unplanted so soil can recover. Fellow, follow and fallacy sound similar but have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fallow land”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.