acre

noun

ˈā-kər How to pronounce acre (audio)
1
a
archaic : a field especially of arable land or pastureland
b
acres plural : lands, estate
2
: any of various units of area
specifically : a unit in the U.S. and England equal to 43,560 square feet (4047 square meters) see Weights and Measures Table
3
: a broad expanse or great quantity
acres of free publicity

Examples of acre in a Sentence

The house sits on two acres of land. They own hundreds of acres of farmland.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The 3,260-acre Henderson fire in San Diego County, near Camp Pendleton, was 95% contained. — Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2026 Last year, for the inaugural report (which had a shorter time frame of October 2024 to August 2025), 38,134 acres of wine grapes were torn out. — Lizzie Kane, Sacbee.com, 19 Oct. 2026 It’s been two months since the Claremont Fire, which burned more than 6,600 acres of the Boise Foothills, reached 100% containment. — Idaho Statesman, 19 Oct. 2026 To make way for what will be the third reservoir to serve the canal, an area of more than 11,000 acres that is currently home to schools, churches, farms and cemeteries will have to be flooded and at least 1,600 residents re-homed. — Hira Humayun, CNN Money, 18 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for acre

Word History

Etymology

Middle English aker, acre, going back to Old English æcer, going back to Germanic *akraz (whence also, with k geminate in West Germanic, Old Saxon akkar "field," Old High German ackar, Old Norse akr "arable land," Gothic akrs "field"), going back to Indo-European *h2eǵros, whence also Latin ager, "piece of land, field," Greek agrós, Sanskrit ájrah

Note: This Indo-European noun is traditionally linked to the verbal base *h2eǵ- "drive (cattle, etc.)" (see agent), on the assumption that *h2eǵ-ros originally meant "pasture," "fallow land," onto which the cattle were driven, and later developed other senses, as "cultivated field." The semantic plausibility of such a derivation has recently been questioned, however.

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of acre was before the 12th century

Phrases Containing acre

Rhymes for acre

See All Rhymes for acre

Browse Nearby Words

acrawl
acre
Acre
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Cite this Entry

“Acre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acre. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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Kids Definition

acre

noun
ˈā-kər How to pronounce acre (audio)
1
plural : property consisting of land : estate
2
: a unit of area equal to 43,560 square feet (about 4047 square meters) see measure
Etymology

Old English æcer "field, cultivated land"

Geographical Definition

Acre 1 of 2

geographical name (1)

ˈä-krē How to pronounce Acre (audio)
-(ˌ)krā
state in western Brazil bordering on Peru and Bolivia; capital Rio Branco area 59,343 square miles (153,698 square kilometers)

Acre

2 of 2

geographical name (2)

ˈä-kər How to pronounce Acre (audio) ˈā-kər How to pronounce Acre (audio) ˈä-krə How to pronounce Acre (audio)
variants or Hebrew ʽAkko or Old Testament Accho
ˈä-kō How to pronounce Acre (audio)
ˈā-
 or New Testament Ptolemaïs
ˌtä-lə-ˈmā-əs How to pronounce Acre (audio)
city and port at the head of a bay on the Mediterranean Sea north of Mount Carmel in northwestern Israel

More from Merriam-Webster on acre

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about acre

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