acre

noun

ˈā-kər 

1

a

archaic : a field especially of arable land or pastureland

b

acres plural : lands, estate

2

: any of various units of area

specifically : a unit in the U.S. and England equal to 43,560 square feet (4047 square meters) see Weights and Measures Table

3

: a broad expanse or great quantity

acres of free publicity

Examples of acre in a Sentence

The house sits on two acres of land.

They own hundreds of acres of farmland.

Recent Examples on the Web

Developers propose $150M redevelopment on 9 acres in Fort Worth’s Near Southside → Man charged with murder in Fort Worth shooting that killed teen 🚨Get free alerts when news breaks. —Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Apr. 2024

Governor Abbott has also announced plans to build a military-style base to house National Guard troops on 80 acres of land in the Eagle Pass area. —Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Apr. 2024

How the developer will obtain certificates for the remaining acres remains to be seen. —Alexandra Hardle, The Arizona Republic, 5 Apr. 2024

The affordable housing project could sprout on 3.2 acres next to the busy Topgolf sports, entertainment and dining venue in North San Jose’s Alviso district. —George Avalos, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024

The two distinct buildings sit on 25 acres of land with views of the Catskill mountains, a creek, and open-canopied woods. —Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2024

In 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled Shirley Chisholm State Park, in Brooklyn: four hundred acres on the northern shore of Jamaica Bay. —Tyler Foggatt, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024

Coelophysis fossils have also been discovered in the park, but dinosaurs only make up a fraction of the prehistoric life that once thrived across its more than 221,000 acres. —Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 23 Mar. 2024

Back then, roughly 2,300 acres a year of the bay were being filled for development. —Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 22 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English aker, acre, going back to Old English æcer, going back to Germanic *akraz (whence also, with k geminate in West Germanic, Old Saxon akkar "field," Old High German ackar, Old Norse akr "arable land," Gothic akrs "field"), going back to Indo-European *h₂eǵros, whence also Latin ager, "piece of land, field," Greek agrós, Sanskrit ájrah

Note: This Indo-European noun is traditionally linked to the verbal base *h₂eǵ- "drive (cattle, etc.)" (see agent), on the assumption that *h₂eǵ-ros originally meant "pasture," "fallow land," onto which the cattle were driven, and later developed other senses, as "cultivated field." The semantic plausibility of such a derivation has recently been questioned, however.

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing acre

• acre-foot
• acre-inch
• God's acre

Kids Definition

acre

noun

ˈā-kər 

1

plural : property consisting of land : estate

2

: a unit of area equal to 43,560 square feet (about 4047 square meters) see measure

Etymology

Old English æcer "field, cultivated land"

Geographical Definition

Acre 1 of 2

geographical name (1)

ˈä-krē  -(ˌ)krā 

state in western Brazil bordering on Peru and Bolivia; capital Rio Branco area 59,343 square miles (153,698 square kilometers), population 733,559

Acre

2 of 2

geographical name (2)

ˈä-kər 

ˈā-kər,

ˈä-krə 

variants or Hebrew ʽAkko or Old Testament Accho

ˈä-kō 

ˈā-

or New Testament Ptolemaïs

ˌtä-lə-ˈmā-əs 

city and port at the head of a bay on the Mediterranean Sea north of Mount Carmel in northwestern Israel population 37,400