acre

noun

\ ˈā-kər

Definition of acre

(Entry 1 of 3)

1a 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

Acre

geographical name (1)

\ ˈä-krē

, -(ˌ)krā

Definition of Acre (Entry 2 of 3)

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

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

Definition of Acre (Entry 3 of 3)

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

Examples of acre in a Sentence

Noun

The house sits on two acres of land. They own hundreds of acres of farmland.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

So a mower with a 54-inch deck can mow up to 4.5 acres. — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, "The Lawn Mower Buyer's Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Buy the Right Mower," 22 Feb. 2019 The fire surged to more than 15,000 acres and prompted mandatory evacuations of some homes and businesses as well as en evacuation warning for the 1,600 residents of Dunsmuir, about 15 miles away, Mr. Vaccaro said. — Jim Carlton, WSJ, "California Wildfire Shuts Down 50-Mile Stretch of Busy Interstate to Oregon," 6 Sep. 2018 The Grant Fire, which broke out Sunday evening on the Altamont Pass and shut down Interstate 580, grew to 640 acres overnight and was 100 percent contained as of 7 a.m. Monday, according to an update by Cal Fire shared on Twitter. — Julia Sclafani, sacbee, "Fire that shut down I-580 at Altamont Pass now contained," 9 July 2018 The fire quickly grew to 100 acres and is burning off Highway 15 and Kenwood Avenue, north of San Bernardino. — Sarah Parvini, latimes.com, "Numerous homes destroyed as heat wave, winds spark brush fires," 6 July 2018 To make room for more residential development, the planning commission reduced the area allotted for industrial development from 447 acres to 210 acres. — Arizona Republic, azcentral, "Nationwide Insurance project could bring development to 1,000 acres of Scottsdale desert," 21 June 2018 The cubs were just the kind of animal that could find a home at the trail project, which more than doubles the zoo’s size to 100 acres, putting its footprint on par with the San Diego Zoo. — Kimberly Veklerov, SFChronicle.com, "Oakland Zoo doubles size, welcomes native wolves, bears and other California wildlife," 20 June 2018 Some Kansas contributions enlarged the would-be campus to 261 acres. — Darryl Levings, kansascity, "Before UMKC, there were dreams of a Lincoln and Lee university," 15 June 2018 The auction is usually home to acres of government surplus vehicles, like police cruisers or PennDot maintenance trucks, maybe a motorcycle or two and sometimes a school bus. — Jason Nark, Philly.com, "In the rolling hills of Dauphin County, high rollers bid on rare, forfeited rides," 14 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'acre.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for acre

Noun

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 ájraḥ,

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.

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