area

American  

[air-ee-uh] / ˈɛər i ə /

noun

• areas
  plural

1. any particular extent of space or surface; part.

   the dark areas in the painting;

   the dusty area of the room.

2. a geographical region; tract: the unsettled areas along the frontier.

   the Chicago area;

   the unsettled areas along the frontier.

3. any section reserved for a specific function: the dining area of a house.

   the business area of a town;

   the dining area of a house.

4. extent, range, or scope.

   inquiries that embrace the whole area of science.

5. field of study, or a branch of a field of study.

   Related areas of inquiry often reflect borrowed notions.

6. a piece of unoccupied ground; an open space.

7. the space or site on which a building stands; the yard attached to or surrounding a house.

8. British. areaway.

9. the quantitative measure of a plane or curved surface; two-dimensional extent.

10. Anatomy. a zone of the cerebral cortex having a specific function.

    The damage to Broca's area affected his speech.

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area British  

/ ˈɛərɪə /

noun

1. any flat, curved, or irregular expanse of a surface

2. 1. the extent of a two-dimensional surface enclosed within a specified boundary or geometric figure

      the area of Ireland

      the area of a triangle

   2. the two-dimensional extent of the surface of a solid, or of some part thereof, esp one bounded by a closed curve

      the area of a sphere

3. a section, portion, or part

   an area of the body

   an area of the sky

4. region; district; locality

   a mountainous area

5. 1. a geographical division of administrative responsibility

   2. ( as modifier )

      area manager

6. a part or section, as of a building, town, etc, having some specified function or characteristic

   reception area

   commercial area

   slum area

7. Also called: areaway.  a sunken area, usually enclosed, giving light, air, and sometimes access to a cellar or basement

8. the range, extent, or scope of anything

9. a subject field or field of study

10. any unoccupied or unused flat open piece of ground

11. the ground on which a building stands, or the ground surrounding a building

12. anatomy any of the various regions of the cerebral cortex

13. computing any part of a computer memory assigned to store data of a specified type

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area Scientific  

/ âr′ē-ə /

1. The extent of a surface or plane figure as measured in square units.

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area Idioms  

1. see gray area.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• areal
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• areas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of area

First recorded in 1530–40; fram Latin ārea “vacant piece of level ground, open space in a town, threshing floor”; perhaps akin to ārēre “to be dry”; see also arid

Explanation

The area is a part of a place, usually defined by a function. If you can't stop talking, don't sit in the quiet area of the library. In Latin, area means a vacant piece of ground, but we use it in English to talk about a region or place that's a subset of another larger region. The boarding area in the airport is the space right next to the door. Area is also used to describe topics or subjects of study or work. Within a big history department, professors have different areas of specialty, from medieval economics to urban American politics.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

area areas

No evidence was found to suggest that they visited any nightclubs or local businesses in the area at the time, police said.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026

The twins joined rallies around Isfahan’s Shohada Square, or martyrs’ square—a commercial area they knew well because they both worked part time at a shoestore there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

The area surrounding the fossil site has produced remains from numerous dinosaur groups, including sauropods, theropods, stegosaurs, and ornithopods.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

All four maintain those spots throughout the chase, regardless of the turns and twists throughout the area.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

There was no time to dwell on it as I exited the restaurant area and dashed downstairs to change.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Her data showed that people in low-risk areas were essentially subsidizing high-risk homes in California’s wealth enclaves such as the Pacific Palisades devastated by the January 2025 firestorm.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026

The police have since set up a task team to investigate the murders and have urged women in the Kempton Park area to avoid walking or running alone "particularly in isolated areas".

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

The application proposes that attracting termites toward treated areas could potentially allow technicians to space treatment holes farther apart while reducing labor and possibly the amount of insecticide needed.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

And while his impartiality occasionally and inevitably falters, the missteps show how difficult, and ultimately useless, it is to ignore humanity’s wide-ranging gray areas to make a beeline for black or white.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026

The Allied bombing of German cities remains a controversial subject, especially in areas where no military or industrial sites were targeted.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Related Words

• city
• county
• field
• locality
• neighborhood
• section
• sector
• square
• state
• territory
• township
• zone