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• brownfield
  brownfield

  noun

  an industrial or commercial site that is idle or underused because of real or perceived environmental pollution.
• Brownfield
  Brownfield

  noun

  a city in NW Texas.

brownfield

¹ American  

[broun-feeld] / ˈbraʊnˌfild /

noun

1. an industrial or commercial site that is idle or underused because of real or perceived environmental pollution.

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Brownfield ² American  

[broun-feeld] / ˈbraʊnˌfild /

noun

1. a city in NW Texas.

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brownfield British  

/ ˈbraʊnˌfiːld /

noun

1. (modifier) denoting or located in an urban area that has previously been built on

   Hampshire has many brownfield developments

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brownfield Scientific  

/ broun′fēld′ /

1. A piece of industrial or commercial property that is abandoned or underused and often environmentally contaminated, especially one considered as a potential site for redevelopment.

2. Compare greenfield

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Etymology

Origin of brownfield

1975–80; brown + field

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brownfield Brownfield

“The company owns a differentiated aluminium business; executing on operational improvements and brownfield expansions will determine whether it can sustain a durable earnings and cash-flow pillar alongside iron ore and copper.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Sustained prices could improve upstream project economics, encourage higher development spending, while greater cash-flow visibility may prompt operators to resume deferred brownfield and asset-integrity work, he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

The party said data centres should be built on brownfield sites, near to renewable energy sources to allow them to use renewables when possible.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

“Volume growth and capex intensity of brownfield expansion could be a focus area given the recent lithium market volatility,” says the bank.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Kernohan said he was not against more pitches being built, but suggested a brownfield site would be more suitable for redevelopment.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

As for the prospects of enticing producers to ramp up output to where it was a quarter-century ago, Brownfield said, “I just don’t see it, unless the U.S. basically bankrolls them.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026

"We were surprised to find that these specialized cells cannot do both jobs at once," says Douglas Brownfield, Ph.D., senior author of the study, which was published in Nature Communications.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2025

The Balfron Tower was designed by Hungarian-born architect Ernő Goldfinger in 1963 and was built between 1965 and 1967 as part of the Brownfield Estate, an area of social housing.

From BBC ● May 21, 2025

And who clearly wanted to be there, less than 40 miles from the small farming community of Brownfield where he grew up.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2022

On the bus ride home he hardly said a word to anyone, the gray shadows of Brownfield and Seagraves and Seminole and Andrews falling across his face like a fine mist.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger