arable

[ ar-uh-buh l ]

/ ˈær ə bəl /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR arable ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

capable of producing crops; suitable for farming; suited to the plow and for tillage: arable land; arable soil.

noun

land that can be or is cultivated.

RELATED WORDS

cultivable, tillable

Nearby words

Origin of arable

1375–1425; < Latin arābilis, equivalent to arā(re) to plow + -bilis -ble; replacing late Middle English erable, equivalent to er(en) to plow (Old English erian) + -able -able

Related formsar·a·bil·i·ty, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for arable

Water, food and arable land will be more scarce, cities more crowded and hunger more widespread.
Pope Francis Is Wrong About My Child-Free Life|Amanda Marcotte|June 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
You will, by accident listening to the show, become an expert-not-really in matters of arable farming, organic crops, and milking.
America, Presenting Your New Addiction: ‘The Archers’|Tim Teeman|April 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Every village must be self-supporting, and therefore an equilibrium of arable and pasture will be established in every village.
Domesday Book and Beyond|Frederic William Maitland
About 70 percent of the increase in cultivated land was added to arable acreage.
Area Handbook for Albania|Eugene K. Keefe

Indeed, the rocks and "drift" of a district give character to its arable surface.
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom|P. L. Simmonds
This addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people.
Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877|James Kennedy
The house would, of course, go with the arable land and a mile or two of pasture beyond it.
Out on the Pampas|G. A. Henty

British Dictionary definitions for arable

arable

/ (ˈærəbəl) /

adjective

(of land) being or capable of being tilled for the production of crops

of, relating to, or using such landarable farming

noun

arable land or farming

Word Origin for arable

C15: from Latin arābilis that can be ploughed, from arāre to plough

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for arable

arable

adj.

early 15c., "suitable for plowing" (as opposed to pasture- or wood-land), from Old French arable (12c.), from Latin arabilis, from arare "to plow," from PIE *are- "to plow" (cf. Greek aroun, Old Church Slavonic orja, Lithuanian ariu "to plow;" Gothic arjan, Old English erian, Middle Irish airim, Welsh arddu "to plow;" Old Norse arþr "a plow"). Replaced by late 18c. native erable, from Old English erian "to plow," from the same PIE source.