orchard
Americannoun
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orchards
plural
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an area of land devoted to the cultivation of fruit or nut trees.
-
a group or collection of such trees.
noun
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an area of land devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees
-
a collection of fruit trees especially cultivated
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of orchard
before 900; Middle English orch ( i ) ard, Old English orceard; replacing ortyard, Middle English ortyerd, Old English ortigeard (compare Gothic aurtigards garden), equivalent to ort- (combining form akin to wort 2; later identified with Latin hortus garden) + geard yard 2
Explanation
An orchard is a tree garden. If you visit New England in autumn, make sure to stop by a local apple orchard and pick a few baskets to take home. From the Old English orceard blossomed our modern-day spelling of orchard, a noun meaning “fruit farm.” But you can also use the word figuratively to refer to something filled with treats or precious content. The US Congregational minister, Henry Ward Beecher, was famous for having proclaimed, “A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”
Vocabulary lists containing orchard
The Balcony Scene from "Romeo and Juliet"
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"Mending Wall," by Robert Frost
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"Water at Work"
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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:
Today, supported by £7m in lottery and other funding, it features woodland, meadows, an orchard, food-growing areas, sports facilities and a restored watercourse.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Sher retired to a pear orchard in the Sierra Nevada foothills and served at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Sierra Nevada Conservancy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
On Dec. 10, 2024, Pancho drove to his orchard in his white GMC truck.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
"We would normally harvest 20-30 tonnes of apples here," he tells me, walking through one orchard.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Set far back from the road, it had a wraparound porch, an apple orchard, and a garden with prizewinning irises.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The plaintiffs argue that the state’s “excessive” pumping from the Delta has led more growers to plant water-intensive almond and pistachio orchards across vast stretches of the San Joaquin Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Shallow groundwater stores supported fruit orchards, alfalfa fields, livestock ranches and, at one point, a water park and dozens of manmade lakes where people could fish, sail and water ski.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Neil MacDonald manages more than 1,000 acres of cider orchards across Somerset.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Aquifer levels have continued to drop as corporate farms and investors have planted vast almond and pistachio orchards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
She cared for fruits and orchards and that was all she cared for.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
