heath
noun
a tract of open and uncultivated land; wasteland overgrown with shrubs.
heath
1 American
[heeth]
/ hiθ /
noun
-
heaths
plural
-
a tract of open and uncultivated land; wasteland overgrown with shrubs.
-
any of various low-growing evergreen shrubs common on such land, as the common heather, Calluna vulgaris.
-
any plant of the genus Erica, or of the family Ericaceae.
Heath
2
American
[heeth]
/ hiθ /
noun
heath
1
British
/ hiːθ /
noun
-
a large open area, usually with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation, esp heather
-
Also called: heather. any low-growing evergreen ericaceous shrub of the Old World genus Erica and related genera, having small bell-shaped typically pink or purple flowers
-
any of several nonericaceous heathlike plants, such as sea heath
-
any of various heathlike plants of the genus Epacris : family Epacridaceae
-
any of various small brown satyrid butterflies of the genus Coenonympha, with coppery-brown wings, esp the large heath ( C. tullia )
Heath
2
British
/ hiːθ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of heath
before 900; Middle English; Old English hǣth; cognate with German Heide, Old Norse heithr, Gothic haithi; akin to Welsh coed trees, wood
Explanation
Heath is open land with low growing grasses and plants. If you travel to England, you can drive out in the countryside to see the heath that you've read about in novels. An open, sandy field of low shrubs and scrubby plants like gorse and heather is called a heath. Another word for this kind of uncultivated countryside is moor. A particular evergreen shrub is also called a heath; it's a low-growing plant with purplish flowers that commonly grows on, you guessed it, a heath. The Old English root of heath is the word hǣth, which means "wasteland."
Vocabulary lists containing heath
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Diary of Anne Frank
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Beowulf
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Tackling the High Fens fire was made much harder by the fens' terrain -- a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
On-site operations have been complicated by the fens' terrain -- a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
George Turrell, 20, from Letchworth, managed to find a pair and was on the heath with his partner Ebrielle Strickland, also 20, from Baldock, to see their first eclipse.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The “I Wanna Rock” singer is no longer able to perform in the way that he used to because of multiple heath issues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2026
At nightfall of the fifth day of the march from Morgul Vale they made their last camp, and set fires about it of such dead wood and heath as they could find.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Heath, for one, thinks docking would make fine TV: “I’ve seen a lot of dumber stuff…. We’ve got to be more exciting than lawn-mower races.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Other prime ministers' choices reflect their own personal passions – Ted Heath donated books about music and sailing.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Tech writer Alex Heath, who uses A.I. in a back-and-forth process with his own tweaking, explained recently that Pangram judged his text to be 100 percent human.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
Elliot Heath is a video intern and part of the summer 2026 newsroom intern class at The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
They would arrive at evening and then assemble and rest in the combe south of Cannon Heath Down.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Now 87 - and officially retired - she continues to help map the coasts and heaths of the islands, which all too often involves recording declines.
From BBC ● Jan. 5, 2024
In other words, they created the varied landscapes of meadows, heaths and grasslands that characterized our cultural landscapes before the advent of modern agriculture.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2023
People wander in empty stone corridors or across blasted heaths, surveyed at crooked angles or from above to emphasize their alienation from one another.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
Because of this, unlike more specialised biomes such as mountains and moors, heaths and ancient woodlands, our cities in the UK are home to a very diverse range of plants and animals.
From The Guardian ● May 2, 2020
During the entire walk, across the heaths and fens near Cambridge, Lessing did all the talking; Watson said not one word.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
