an expanse of open or cleared ground, especially a piece of land suitable or used for pasture or tillage.
Sports.
a piece of ground devoted to sports or contests; playing field.
(in betting) all the contestants or numbers that are grouped together as one.
to bet on the field in a horse race.
(in football) the players on the playing ground.
the area in which field events are held.
Baseball.
the team in the field, as opposed to the one at bat.
the outfield.
a sphere of activity, interest, etc., especially within a particular business or profession.
the field of teaching;
the field of Shakespearean scholarship.
the area or region drawn on or serviced by a business or profession; outlying areas where business activities or operations are carried on, as opposed to a home or branch office.
our representatives in the field.
a job location remote from regular workshop facilities, offices, or the like.
Military.
the scene or area of active military operations.
a battleground.
a battle.
Informal. an area located away from the headquarters of a commander.
an expanse of anything.
a field of ice.
any region characterized by a particular feature, resource, activity, etc..
a gold field.
the surface of a canvas, shield, etc., on which something is portrayed.
a gold star on a field of blue.
(in a flag) the ground of each division.
Physics. the influence of some agent, as electricity or gravitation, considered as existing at all points in space and defined by the force it would exert on an object placed at any point in space.
Also called field of view. Optics. the entire angular expanse visible through an optical instrument, such as the lens of a camera, microscope, or telescope, at a given time.
Photography. the area of a subject that is taken in by a lens at a particular diaphragm opening.
Electricity. the structure in a generator or motor that produces a magnetic field around a rotating armature.
Mathematics. a number system that has the same properties relative to the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as the number system of all real numbers; a commutative division ring. F
Psychology. the total complex of interdependent factors within which a psychological event occurs and is perceived as occurring.
Computers.
one or more related characters treated as a unit and constituting part of a record, for purposes of input, processing, output, or storage by a computer.
If the hours-worked field is blank or zero, the program does not write a check for that employee.
(in a punch card) any number of columns regularly used for recording the same information.
Television. one half of the scanning lines required to form a complete television frame. In the United States, two fields are displayed in 1/30 second: all the odd-numbered lines in one field and all the even lines in the next field.
Numismatics. the blank area of a coin, other than that of the exergue.
Fox Hunting. the group of participants in a hunt, exclusive of the master of foxhounds and his staff.
Heraldry. the whole area or background of an escutcheon.
Baseball, Cricket.
to catch or pick up (the ball) in play.
The shortstop fielded the grounder and threw to first for the out.
to place (a player, group of players, or a team) in the field to play.
to place in competition.
to field a candidate for governor.
to answer or reply skillfully.
to field a difficult question.
to put into action or on duty.
to field police cars to patrol an area.
Informal. field-test.
to act as a fielder; field the ball.
to take to the field.
Sports.
of, taking place, or competed for on the field and not on the track, as the discus throw or shot put.
of or relating to field events.
Military. of or relating to campaign and active combat service as distinguished from service in rear areas or at headquarters.
a field soldier.
of or relating to a field.
grown or cultivated in a field.
working in the fields of a farm.
field laborers.
working as a salesperson, engineer, representative, etc., in the field.
an insurance company's field agents.
out in left field. left field.
take the field,
to begin to play, as in football or baseball; go into action.
to go into battle.
They took the field at dawn.
play the field,
to date a number of persons rather than only one.
He wanted to play the field for a few years before settling down.
to vary one's activities.
keep the field, to remain in competition or in battle; continue to contend.
The troops kept the field under heavy fire.
in the field,
in actual use or in a situation simulating actual use or application; away from a laboratory, workshop, or the like.
The machine was tested for six months in the field.
in contact with a prime source of basic data.
The anthropologist is working in the field in Nigeria.
within a given profession.
The public knows little of him, but in the field he's known as a fine mathematician.
Cyrus West, 1819–92, U.S. financier: projector of the first Atlantic cable.
David Dudley, Jr., 1805–94, U.S. jurist (brother of Cyrus West and Stephen Johnson Field).
Erastus Salisbury, 1805–1900, U.S. painter.
Eugene, 1850–95, U.S. poet and journalist.
John, 1782–1837, Irish pianist and composer.
Marshall, 1834–1906, U.S. merchant and philanthropist.
Stephen Johnson, 1816–99, U.S. jurist: associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 1863–97 (brother of Cyrus West and David Dudley Field, Jr.).
an open tract of uncultivated grassland; meadow
a piece of land cleared of trees and undergrowth, usually enclosed with a fence or hedge and used for pasture or growing crops
a field of barley
a limited or marked off area, usually of mown grass, on which any of various sports, athletic competitions, etc, are held
a soccer field
an area that is rich in minerals or other natural resources
a coalfield
short for battlefield airfield
the mounted followers that hunt with a pack of hounds
all the runners in a particular race or competitors in a competition
the runners in a race or competitors in a competition excluding the favourite
cricket the fielders collectively, esp with regard to their positions
a wide or open expanse
a field of snow
an area of human activity
the field of human knowledge
a sphere or division of knowledge, interest, etc
his field is physics
a place away from the laboratory, office, library, etc, usually out of doors, where practical work is done or original material or data collected
( as modifier )
a field course
the surface or background, as of a flag, coin, or heraldic shield, on which a design is displayed
Also called: field of view. the area within which an object may be observed with a telescope, microscope, etc
physics
See field of force
a region of space that is a vector field
a region of space under the influence of some scalar quantity, such as temperature
maths a set of entities subject to two binary operations, addition and multiplication, such that the set is a commutative group under addition and the set, minus the zero, is a commutative group under multiplication and multiplication is distributive over addition
maths logic the set of elements that are either arguments or values of a function; the union of its domain and range
computing
a set of one or more characters comprising a unit of information
a predetermined section of a record
television one of two or more sets of scanning lines which when interlaced form the complete picture
obsolete the open country
beasts of the field
to maintain one's position in the face of opposition
military in an area in which operations are in progress
actively or closely involved with or working on something (rather than being in a more remote or administrative position)
to be in the leading or most pre-eminent position
informal to back out of a competition, contest, etc
to begin or carry on activity, esp in sport or military operations
informal to disperse one's interests or attentions among a number of activities, people, or objects
(modifier) military of or relating to equipment, personnel, etc, specifically designed or trained for operations in the field
a field gun
a field army
(tr) sport to stop, catch, or return (the ball) as a fielder
(tr) sport to send (a player or team) onto the field to play
(intr) sport (of a player or team) to act or take turn as a fielder or fielders
(tr) military to put (an army, a unit, etc) in the field
(tr) to enter (a person) in a competition
each party fielded a candidate
informal (tr) to deal with or handle, esp adequately and by making a reciprocal gesture
to field a question
A distribution in a region of space of the strength and direction of a force, such as the electrostatic force near an electrically charged object, that would act on a body at any given point in that region.
See also electric field magnetic field
The region whose image is visible to the eye or accessible to an optical instrument.
A set of elements having two operations, designated addition and multiplication, satisfying the conditions that multiplication is distributive over addition, that the set is a group under addition, and that the elements with the exception of the additive identity (0) form a group under multiplication. The set of all rational numbers is a field.
In a database, a space for a single item of information contained in a record.
An interface element in a graphical user interface that accepts the input of text.
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English feld; cognate with German Feld, Dutch, Afrikaans velt
This word has many meanings — such as a field of daffodils, a field of study, or a field of battle in a war. Think of a field as an area, either physically or subject-wise. A type of business or area of study is a field. All the subjects you study in school are different fields of study. Baseball players field a ball, and you need nine players to field a team. All the horses in a race are the field. Your field of vision is what you can see. Researchers go into the field to collect data — for an education researcher, that’s a school. Most fields are specific areas of one sort or another.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“When you’re with someone that is in your field, they understand what you’re dealing with on a deeper level,” she told People in 2019.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
A decade and a half later, in an All-Star Game that was short on drama and long on tributes to Trout, the hometown hero and future Hall of Famer, Crow-Armstrong shared center field with Trout.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
He left the field, followed by Iyer, run out by Harry Brook's direct hit, and KL Rahul, who chopped on off Tongue.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Some mainly cover hard-and-fast rules, hand signals and proper field positions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
“And broken hand or no broken hand, he’s not about to leave a clear field for Glenn Tarbox.”
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
"In some areas, you'll find a different sinkhole every 100 meters," says Lazaro Viñola López, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago and the study's lead author.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Jude McCrory, 28, of Gartan Square, was also found not guilty, as was Patrick Anthony Gallagher, 34, of John Field Place.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
Those within five miles of Seattle’s Lumen Field saw transaction volume rise 56% on June 19, when the U.S. played Australia, according to data from restaurant technology company Toast.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
Lumen Technologies this month produced a YouTube mockumentary depicting Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Ryan Asdourian single-handedly taking down all of its signage around Lumen Field in Seattle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Field in jest, as Ajarry’s stake was scarcely three yards square.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
But she added that it was "really sad driving down the pass and seeing all the devastation" on their return home, due to the scenes of charred fields and trees.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Pathways range across fields including engineering, information technology, agriculture, public policy and entertainment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Oil that couldn’t be shipped out was backing up in storage, presenting Tehran with a difficult choice to shut down production and potentially damage its oil fields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Medium and high resolution sensors operated by government agencies and commercial satellite companies have tracked these floating pumice fields as they stretch into long bands carried by surface currents.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
A cottony cloud of locusts hovered over a farm where a tiny family raised brooms in the fields.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
The talent pool there is so deep, France probably could have fielded a B team in this World Cup and made it to the quarterfinals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Henderson fielded calls about the bids while he was on vacation in Mexico with friends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
When he fielded it cleanly, Tucker shuffled back toward third base.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The last time England fielded three debutants in the same XI was against South Africa at The Oval in 2017.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
He and his wife indulged every photographer and cheerfully fielded calls from reporters at any time, day or night.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Storage Sale: Across Silicon Valley, startup founders are enjoying a wave of computing credits and fielding competing offers from AI-model makers racing to land new enterprise customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Across Silicon Valley, startup founders like Ibarra are enjoying a wave of computing credits and fielding competing offers from AI-model makers racing to land new enterprise customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
"We do pieces of fielding to each song and he pumps the music up to try and get us all hyped up," vice-captain Charlie Dean said.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
For much of Muncy’s baseball life he played on the right side of the infield, fielding pull-side contact from left-handed hitters and opposite-field contact from right-handed hitters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
I was frequently too busy to talk to him, so Michael had been fielding most of the calls and had become increasingly worried about Ralph's unique perspective on the world.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
