areal

adjective

ar·​e·​al ˈer-ē-əl 

ˈā-rē-əl

: of, relating to, or involving an area

The figure of merit for a disk technology is its areal density: the number of data bits reliably stored per unit area of the magnetic surface.

—Stuart S. P. Parkin

… there is a need to develop a methodology to define neighborhood in terms of comparable areal units as a health analytic.

—Wayne Gearey

areally

ˈer-ē-ə-lē 

ˈā-rē-ə-

adverb

It gave analytical significance to material culture traits, described and classified areally, by permitting their correlation with identifiable cultures.

—Michael Solot

Examples of areal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The National Weather Service has issued an areal flood watch for the Kansas City area, including Atchison, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri, through Tuesday morning. —Kansas City Star, 8 June 2026

The Coughlin Associates chart of maximum shipping HDD product areal density history for HDDs is shown below. —Thomas Coughlin, Forbes.com, 3 Mar. 2026

Jack Albright One of the multiple flood warnings and watches from the National Weather Service over Aug. 9-10 was for areal flooding, which is usually issued for larger areas hit with gradual ponding and water buildup. —Drake Bentley, jsonline.com, 12 Aug. 2025

Early on, the areal densities of tapes and hard drives were similar. —IEEE Spectrum, 28 Aug. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1676, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for areal

• actuarial
• adversarial
• secretarial
• urticarial
• aerial
• ariel
• burial
• antimalarial
• biserial
• filarial
• malarial
• subaerial