Meaning & use
surface lot
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Meanings
nouncountableAmerican
An area of ground at street level where cars are parked, with no building or roof over it.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a surface lot' for one, 'surface lots' for several; it is not used as a verb.
Patterns
- a surface lot behind something
- park in a surface lot
- a surface lot next to something
- surface lot parking
We left the car in a surface lot behind the hotel and walked to the stadium.
The new office has no underground garage, so everyone parks in the surface lot across the street.
Surface lots take up a lot of space, but they are much cheaper to build than a parking garage.
nouncountableAmerican
A flat open area of this kind used for a particular activity, such as selling Christmas trees or storing equipment.
Grammar: Countable and usually followed by 'for' plus the activity: 'a surface lot for storage'.
Patterns
- a surface lot for something
- use something as a surface lot
Every December the council turns the empty surface lot into a Christmas tree market.
They used the surface lot behind the depot for storing road salt in winter.
Word forms
| plural | surface lots |
|---|
Common combinations
- a surface parking lot
- The mall has a big surface parking lot in front of the main entrance.
- park in a surface lot
- Visitors should park in the surface lot and take the shuttle to the terminal.
- an empty surface lot
- An empty surface lot stood where the old factory used to be.
- surface lot spaces
- The company rents surface lot spaces for its delivery vans.
- an underground garage or a surface lot
- You can choose between an underground garage or a surface lot when you book.
Synonyms and how they differ
- parking lot
- The general American term for any place where cars are parked, including one with a roof or several levels; 'surface lot' specifically means the flat, open kind.
- car park
- The usual British term; it covers both open ground and multi-story buildings, so it is broader than 'surface lot'.
- parking garage
- A building with several floors for parking; unlike a surface lot, it has a roof and levels.
- open-air car park
- A British phrase with almost the same meaning as 'surface lot'; it stresses that there is no roof.
Opposites
Word family
- parking lot noun
- The general American word for a place where cars are parked.
- lot noun
- On its own, an area of land, often used for parking or building.
Commonly confused: surface lot or parking lot? surface lot or surface parking?
surface lot vs parking lot
'Parking lot' is the wider American term and can include covered or multi-level parking; 'surface lot' is only the flat, open-air kind.
surface lot vs surface parking
'Surface parking' names the activity or the spaces themselves rather than the piece of land, so you park in a 'surface lot' but talk about 'surface parking' as a facility.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'surface lot' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Surface lot' is a noun for an open area where cars are parked, so it follows 'in' and works as the object of 'parked the car in'. Option 2 wrongly uses it as a verb, and options 3 and 4 use 'of', which does not fit because a lot is not a part of a river.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “surface lot”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.