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

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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

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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

She currently works for nine families in the greater Atlanta area and charges around $60 an hour for her services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Proposition TE would allow Palisades fire victims who own homes in the area to avoid the tax as long as they sell the property within five years of the disaster.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

On Tuesday police seized 350kg of fireworks worth about £12,000 from an address in the Penilee area of Glasgow.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

“Data-center demand growth in West Texas, which is not a particularly populated area of the state or of the country, will continue to move ahead,” Joseph said.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026

Broca notices that in the brains of stroke patients who'd lost the power to speak there is visible damage in a small area on the outside of the left frontal lobe.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

Of course, it’s too early to know what if anything will emerge in terms of specific legislation governing data center construction and AI safety, two areas of rising public concern.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

This year a new initiative, Operation Amberlight, will see police officers based at fire stations in certain areas to better protect emergency crews.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

Among the weaknesses of satellite internet is that it doesn’t perform very well in cities and other population-dense areas.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026

During the race, El-Sayed drew huge campaign crowds across the state, even in deeply conservative Republican areas.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

It was a national project to select landing sites for future passenger airports in the Crimea, Caucasus, and Sea of Azov areas.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

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Related Words

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• zone

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