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:
“Should I just leave now?” she asks herself after spotting a heath fritillary in Vendsyssel in northern Denmark.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
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
"You've got sandy dunes, you've got muddy coasts, you've got reedbeds, you've got dry heath, you've got all this farmland as well," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
Demi Lovato is making some changes to their upcoming tour in order to prioritize their heath.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026
A tidy bit of a house on the heath where she lives alone with her cat.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Heath Ledger’s Joker is an enemy who doesn’t play by the rules, attacking the city with no clear political goal beyond creating panic and chaos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Insp Hayley Thompson, who oversees policing in Kings Heath, said the force took anti-social behaviour "incredibly seriously" and they were working to make the area safer.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
The only English population of the narrow-headed ant lives in the trust's Chudleigh Knighton Heath nature reserve and the nationally scarce erratic ant was recently discovered at the charity's Bovey Heathfield nature reserve.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
But there’s a big difference between telecom and AI infrastructure demand, according to Heath Terry, global head of technology and communications research at Citi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
“Well, Uncle Heath, not to be a Debbie Downer, but technically, until we recover the treasure, it’s not really”—she made air quotes—“‘rightfully yours.’”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
The New Forest is home to ancient woodland, fens, heaths and bogs, making it a diverse habitat.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2025
Using the PCR method that most people are familiar with from viral testing, the researchers found Mycena in samples of living trees in forests, meadows and Arctic mountain heaths around the world.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2023
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
These sites represented both natural habitats, such as lowland savannahs and alpine heaths, and habitats that had been heavily affected by human activity, including cropland and logged forests.
From Nature ● Mar. 26, 2019
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.
