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

Fed up, Sarah travels across the ocean to obtain a divorce and dispose of the endless acres sprawled across the Outback. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 21 Nov. 2023

The property backed up to a vacant lot that has since become Crispus Attucks Park, a grassy acre landscaped with flowers, benches and shade trees. —Omari Daniels, Washington Post, 21 Nov. 2023

Other Things to Do Lincoln State Park Lincoln State Park is a calming oasis of over 2,000 acres of stunning scenery with trails, campsites, boat rentals, and picnic areas set along Lake Lincoln. —Carly Caramanna, Travel + Leisure, 19 Nov. 2023

Proposed is use of 2.8 acres on the property bounded by Maxson Street on the north, Barnes Street on the east, Country Club Lane on the south and Brooks Street on the west. —Lola Sherman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Nov. 2023

Today, the neighborhood is mostly a mix of office towers that jut up from a sea of cookie-cutter, low-slung office buildings served by acres of surface parking lots. —Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2023

Chip Chop sits on two separate lots, one featuring 17.4 acres and the second with 2.84 acres. —Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 9 Nov. 2023

Blazes across the state burned 1.5 million acres in 2017, more than double the year before. —Chris Morris, Fortune, 9 Nov. 2023

Observe more than 14 hummingbird species set over 1,200 acres at Selvatura Hummingbird Garden. —Kristin Braswell, Travel + Leisure, 8 Nov. 2023

See More

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-inch
• God's acre
• acre-foot

• acre-inch
• God's acre
• acre-foot

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