plantation

noun

plan·​ta·​tion plan-ˈtā-shən 

1

: a usually large group of plants and especially trees under cultivation

2

: a settlement in a new country or region

Plymouth Plantation

3

a

: a place that is planted or under cultivation

b

: an agricultural estate usually worked by resident labor

Synonyms

• colony

Examples of plantation in a Sentence

the struggling plantation almost failed during the first winter

Recent Examples on the Web

Set in a cocoa plantation in Itacaré (Brazil), the telenovela follows a young girl of Portuguese family named Cacao – played by actress Matilde Reymão – who makes chocolate with exotic flavors. —Emiliano De Pablos, Variety, 9 Apr. 2024

After the ship burned, Brazilian police launched an operation to rescue the Africans sold by Gordon and searched the region’s coffee plantations. —Rafael Vilela, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2024

My father, the son of plantation laborers, had just earned a natural sciences degree from the University of Guyana, founded at independence to educate the people who would build the new nation. —Gaiutra Bahadur Keisha Scarville, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2024

Sugar, since the days of plantation slavery through today, has owned one of the worst track records for barbaric labor practices. —Chadd Scott, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024

In recent decades, however, their tropical forest homes have been slashed for timber and cleared to create palm oil plantations, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. —Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Mar. 2024

Bamboo the restaurant was once Bamboo the hotel, housing sugar-cane plantation workers more than 100 years ago. —Tom Bentley, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024

Often, Williams collects the earth from historically important sites of loss in the African diaspora: plantations of the American South, street corners where Black trans women were murdered or the banks of a river that became a thoroughfare for the domestic slave trade. —Zachary Small, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024

Everywhere people bathe along the river’s hundreds of ghats (stone steps), many hop bamboo-platformed ferry boats, prayers and music ring out from towns behind jute plantations. —Alex Greggery, Robb Report, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

plantation

noun

plan·​ta·​tion plan-ˈtā-shən 

1

: a group of plants and especially trees planted and cared for

2

: a settlement in a new country or region : colony

3

: a planted area

especially : an agricultural estate worked by laborers

Geographical Definition

Plantation

geographical name

city in southeastern Florida west of Fort Lauderdale population 84,955