Meaning & use
tenant farming
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
An agricultural system where farmers rent land from owners and pay with cash, crops, or a share of harvest.
Grammar: No plural; say systems of tenant farming, not tenant farmings.
Patterns
- practice tenant farming
- turn to tenant farming
- tenant farming in a region
After the estate was divided, many families survived through tenant farming.
Tenant farming can give renters access to land without buying it.
Common combinations
- widespread tenant farming
- Widespread tenant farming shaped the rural economy for decades.
- tenant-farming agreement
- The lawyer reviewed the tenant-farming agreement before spring planting.
- family tenant farming
- Their family tenant farming operation expanded from one field to six.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sharecropping
- Sharecropping usually means rent is paid as a share of the crop; tenant farming can also involve cash rent.
- land leasing
- Land leasing is broader and includes nonfarm property; tenant farming specifically concerns agricultural land.
- crofting
- Crofting is a small-scale farming system in parts of Scotland and is more regional than tenant farming.
Word family
Commonly confused: tenant farming or sharecropping? tenant farming or tenancy?
tenant farming vs sharecropping
The terms overlap, but sharecropping emphasizes paying rent with part of the harvest, while tenant farming may use cash or shares.
tenant farming vs tenancy
Tenancy is the legal arrangement of renting; tenant farming is an agricultural system built on such arrangements.
Practice
A farmer rents fields and pays the owner one-third of each harvest. Which term fits most precisely?
Choose one answer.
Paying rent as a fixed share of the crop is the core of sharecropping. Tenant farming is close, but cash rent is also common; crop rotation and market gardening describe different practices.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tenant farming”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.