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• acre
  acre

  noun

  a common measure of area: in the U.S. and U.K., 1 acre equals 4,840 square yards (4,047 square meters) or 0.405 hectare; 640 acres equals one square mile.
• Acre
  Acre

  noun

  a state in W Brazil. 58,900 sq. mi. (152,550 sq. km). Rio Branco.

acre

¹ American  

[ay-ker] / ˈeɪ kər /

noun

• acres
  plural

1. a common measure of area: in the U.S. and U.K., 1 acre equals 4,840 square yards (4,047 square meters) or 0.405 hectare; 640 acres equals one square mile.

2. acres,

   1. lands; land.

      wooded acres.

   2. Informal. large quantities.

      acres of Oriental rugs.

3. Archaic. a plowed or sown field.

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idioms

1. forty acres and a mule. mule.

Acre ² American  

[ah-kruh, ah-ker, ay-ker] / ˈɑ krə, ˈɑ kər, ˈeɪ kər /

noun

1. a state in W Brazil. 58,900 sq. mi. (152,550 sq. km). Rio Branco.

2. a seaport in NW Israel: besieged and captured by Crusaders 1191.

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Acre ¹ British  

noun

1. a state of W Brazil: mostly unexplored tropical forests; acquired from Bolivia in 1903. Capital: Rio Branco. Pop: 586 942 (2002). Area: 152 589 sq km (58 899 sq miles)

2. Arabic name: `Akka. Hebrew name: `Akko. Old Testament name: Accho. a city and port in N Israel, strategically situated on the Bay of Acre in the E Mediterranean: taken and retaken during the Crusades (1104, 1187, 1191, 1291), taken by the Turks (1517), by Egypt (1832), and by the Turks again (1839). Pop: 45 600 (2001)

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acre ² British  

/ ˈeɪkə /

noun

1. a unit of area used in certain English-speaking countries, equal to 4840 square yards or 4046.86 square metres

2. (plural)

   1. land, esp a large area

   2. informal a large amount

      he has acres of space in his room

3. to graze cows on the verge of a road

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acre Scientific  

/ ā′kər /

1. A unit of area in the US Customary System, used in land and sea floor measurement and equal to 43,560 square feet or 4,047 square meters.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-acre
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• acres
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of acre

First recorded before 1000; Middle English aker, Old English æcer; cognate with Old Frisian ekker, Old Saxon akkar, Old High German ackar ( German Acker ), Old Norse akr, Gothic akers, Latin ager, Greek agrós, Sanskrit ájra-; see also acorn, agrarian, agrestic, agriculture, agro-

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Explanation

An acre is a unit for measuring area, especially larger areas like farms. An acre is 4840 square yards. It's pretty easy to imagine a square yard: three feet by three feet. Now imagine 4840 of them and you've got an acre. That's a pretty large chunk of land, and acres are used for measuring big areas in some English-speaking countries. Large areas such as farms, forests, and golf courses are likely to be measured in acres. Farms in particular need many acres to grow crops and give the animals space to live.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acre Acre acres

Situated on a lot just over an acre, the 7,781-square-foot home was built in 2025.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

It was the tribe’s second land return, made possible with state funding, after spending more than a century without a single acre to their name.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

His project, rather, is an examination of the deaths of two hikers, Dean Pommerville and Eric Straughter, in the 1.3 million acre Gifford Pinchot National Forest in December 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

There are also plans in place to extend it out a further acre – making space for about 5,000 more pumpkins.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

Hawaiian labor corvees built elaborate irrigation systems for taro fields yielding up to 24 tons per acre, the highest crop yields in all of Polynesia.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

One such island in Wisconsin's Lake Chippewa is known as the Forty Acre Bog.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Hundred Acre Wines, said Marfil was working as a contracted gardener when the fire broke out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

One of Shepard’s maps of the Hundred Acre Wood currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive book illustration sold at auction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

A spokesperson for Hundred Acre, a popular Calistoga-based winery, confirmed Friday that company representatives had recently spoken with fire investigators who are trying to figure out what started the region’s largest fire this year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2025

Acre is in the western Amazon, on Bolivia’s northern border, the hinterlands of the hinterlands.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The Brampton assembly facility has 2.95 million square feet of floor space on 269 acres.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2026

“You live on 900 acres with every form of entertainment imaginable,” developer Andy Mitchell tells Realtor.com.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026

Finnimore has been the principal custodian of 4.5 acres of land at Coed Troednoeth, Tir y Gafel since the previous owner left in 2018.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

Created by the Texas Constitution of 1876, PUF makes investments and owns 2.1 million acres of land, much of which is in the Permian Basin.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

I was in the midst of several thousand acres of exquisitely pretty woodlands shared jointly by Worthington State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

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Related Words

• acreage
• estate
• plot
• property

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