area

Borrowed from Latin area.

• (UK) enPR: âʼrĭ-ə; IPA^(key): /ˈɛːɹɪə/
• (US) enPR: ârʼē-ə; IPA^(key): /ˈɛɚ.i.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹiə
• Hyphenation: a‧re‧a, ar‧e‧a

area (plural areas or areæ)

1. (mathematics) A measure of the extent of a surface; it is measured in square units.
   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns‎:

     It is about 4.5 million square kilometers in area and holds the world’s third largest collection of ice after Antarctica and Greenland.

2. A particular geographic region.
3. Any particular extent of surface, especially an empty or unused extent.

   The photo is a little dark in that area.

4. The extent, scope, or range of an object or concept.

   The plans are a bit vague in that area.

   • 2013 September-October, Rob Dorit, “Making Life from Scratch”, in American Scientist:

     Today, a new area of research that similarly aims to mimic a complex biological phenomenon—life itself—is taking off. Synthetic biology, a seductive experimental subfield in the life sciences, seems tantalizingly to promise custom-designed life created in the laboratory.

5. (British) An open space, below ground level, giving access to the basement of a house, and typically separated from the pavement by railings. [from 18th c.]
   • 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge, published 2016, page 95:

     A boy seized it, whom she bribed with a shilling to relinquish his prize, which she was taking home, when it escaped from her hand, and fell down the area of a house.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     This was so favourably received by the milkman and beadle that he would immediately have been pushed into the area if I had not held his pinafore while Richard and Mr. Guppy ran down through the kitchen to catch him when he should be released.

   • 1908, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans:

     A minute later we were both in the area. Hardly had we reached the dark shadows before the step of the policeman was heard in the fog above. As its soft rhythm died away, Holmes set to work upon the lower door. I saw him stoop and strain until with a sharp crash it flew open. We sprang through into the dark passage, closing the area door behind us.

6. (soccer) Penalty box; penalty area.
   • 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC:

     Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner.

7. (slang) Genitals.
   • 2003 October 2, “The One Where Ross Is Fine”, in Friends, season 10, episode 2, spoken by Frank Buffay Jr. (Giovanni Ribisi), via NBC:

     But what do I do when the third one runs at me with his bike helmet on? I got no more hands to protect my area!

• areal

• Imperial: square inches, square feet, square yards, square miles, acres
• Metric: square meters/square metres, square centimeters/square centimetres, square kilometers/square kilometres, hectares

• Aare, æra

• Audio

  (file)

area (plural areas)

1. area

• leerarea

From Old Galician-Portuguese arẽa, from Latin arēnā (“sand”). Cognate with Portuguese areia and Spanish arena.

• IPA^(key): /aˈɾea̝/

area f (plural areas)

1. sand (a grain)
2. (figuratively) a grain of salt
3. sand (collectively)

   Synonyms: xabre, saibro

4. (dated) beach, cove

   Synonyms: areal, praia, arnela

• área

• “area” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “area” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “area” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “area” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “area” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Learned borrowing from Latin ārea.

• IPA^(key): [ˈarɛa]
• Hyphenation: arèa

arèa (first-person possessive areaku, second-person possessive areamu, third-person possessive areanya)

1. area:
   1. a particular geographic region.

      Synonym: daerah

   2. any particular extent of surface, especially an empty or unused extent.

      Synonym: kawasan

• “area” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Borrowed from Latin ārea. Doublet of aia (“threshing floor”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.re.a/
• Rhymes: -area
• Hyphenation: à‧re‧a

area f (plural aree)

1. area, surface
2. land, ground
3. field, sector

• areale

• aera

Of disputed etymology:

• Either from Proto-Italic *āzeā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-e-yeh₂, from *h₂eHs- (“to burn”) (whence āreō, ārā),[1]
• Or from Proto-Italic *āreā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂r-e-yeh₂, from *h₂eh₂rh₃- (“threshing tool”) (cognate with Hittite [script needed] (ḫaḫḫar, “rake, threshing tool”)), resultative reduplicated noun from verb *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).[2]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈaː.re.a/, [ˈäːreä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.re.a/, [ˈäːreä]

ārea f (genitive āreae); first declension

1. a piece of level ground, a vacant place (esp. in the town)
2. ground for a house, a building-spot
3. (figuratively) a vacant space around or in a house, a court
4. (figuratively) an open space for games, an open play-ground
5. (figuratively) a threshing floor
6. (figuratively) the halo around the sun or moon
7. (figuratively) a bed or border in a garden
8. (figuratively) a fowling-floor
9. (figuratively) a burying-ground, church-yard
10. (figuratively) a bald spot upon the head, baldness

First-declension noun.

• ārealis
• āreola

Borrowings:

• “area”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “area”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• area in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• area in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “area”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “area”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

• aera

From Spanish área

area

1. area

area f (plural areas)

1. Obsolete spelling of área

From Latin area (literally “vacant piece of level ground”).

area c

1. (geometry) area; a measure of squared distance.