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• acre
  acre

  noun

  a common measure of area: in the U.S. and U.K., 1 acre equals 4,840 square yards (4,047 square meters) or 0.405 hectare; 640 acres equals one square mile.
• Acre
  Acre

  noun

  a state in W Brazil. 58,900 sq. mi. (152,550 sq. km). Rio Branco.

acre

¹ American  

[ey-ker] / ˈeɪ kər /

noun

• acres
  plural

1. a common measure of area: in the U.S. and U.K., 1 acre equals 4,840 square yards (4,047 square meters) or 0.405 hectare; 640 acres equals one square mile.

2. acres,

   1. lands; land.

      wooded acres.

   2. Informal. large quantities.

      acres of Oriental rugs.

3. Archaic. a plowed or sown field.

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idioms

1. forty acres and a mule. mule.

Acre ² American  

[ah-kruh, ah-ker, ey-ker] / ˈɑ krə, ˈɑ kər, ˈeɪ kər /

noun

1. a state in W Brazil. 58,900 sq. mi. (152,550 sq. km). Rio Branco.

2. a seaport in NW Israel: besieged and captured by Crusaders 1191.

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Acre ¹ British  

noun

1. a state of W Brazil: mostly unexplored tropical forests; acquired from Bolivia in 1903. Capital: Rio Branco. Pop: 586 942 (2002). Area: 152 589 sq km (58 899 sq miles)

2. Arabic name: `Akka.  Hebrew name: `Akko.  Old Testament name: Accho.  a city and port in N Israel, strategically situated on the Bay of Acre in the E Mediterranean: taken and retaken during the Crusades (1104, 1187, 1191, 1291), taken by the Turks (1517), by Egypt (1832), and by the Turks again (1839). Pop: 45 600 (2001)

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acre ² British  

/ ˈeɪkə /

noun

1. a unit of area used in certain English-speaking countries, equal to 4840 square yards or 4046.86 square metres

2. (plural)

   1. land, esp a large area

   2. informal a large amount

      he has acres of space in his room

3. to graze cows on the verge of a road

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acre Scientific  

/ ā′kər /

1. A unit of area in the US Customary System, used in land and sea floor measurement and equal to 43,560 square feet or 4,047 square meters.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-acre
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• acres
  plural

Etymology

Origin of acre

First recorded before 1000; Middle English aker, Old English æcer; cognate with Old Frisian ekker, Old Saxon akkar, Old High German ackar ( German Acker ), Old Norse akr, Gothic akers, Latin ager, Greek agrós, Sanskrit ájra-; see also acorn, agrarian, agrestic, agriculture, agro-

Explanation

An acre is a unit for measuring area, especially larger areas like farms. An acre is 4840 square yards. It's pretty easy to imagine a square yard: three feet by three feet. Now imagine 4840 of them and you've got an acre. That's a pretty large chunk of land, and acres are used for measuring big areas in some English-speaking countries. Large areas such as farms, forests, and golf courses are likely to be measured in acres. Farms in particular need many acres to grow crops and give the animals space to live.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acre Acre acres

Howard is planting fewer seedlings per acre to reduce upfront costs and thinning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

“My Administration is committed to protecting every acre of our lands and preserving the cleanest air and water in the world,” Trump said in a presidential message on Monday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

Projected yield for this year was reduced to 52.7 bushels an acre from 53 bushels an acre forecast last month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

The lab sat on an acre of land in a forest that straddles the border of Abidagba and Iroto villages.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

Through brochures and pamphlets it conjured up a place with weather as wonderful as Southern California’s and soil as fertile as that of the finest acre of farmland in Kansas or Iowa.

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

Three winemakers earlier this month filed suit against the owner of Hundred Acre Wines, Jayson Woodbridge, and his company alleging that smoke from the wildfire ruined their harvests, the Press Democrat reported.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

He was carried over as a worker from Kelly Fleming Wines, which owned the vineyard property at 2339 Pickett Road before Hundred Acre acquired it in 2024, Singer said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Queen Camilla has celebrated 100 years since the first Winnie-the-Pooh books were published by playing poohsticks at the site which inspired Hundred Acre Wood.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Shepard brought the light touch of Punch magazine to creation of the Hundred Acre Wood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

But most of the geoglyphs in Acre are on higher ground, making them of little use for drainage.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The brush fire, dubbed the Getty fire, had grown to 20 acres by about 5:30 p.m.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Located about an hour’s drive from Manhattan and set on a stunning 2 acres of land, the home was originally built in 1955 for auto importer Max Hoffman.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026

The endeavor, worth $1.4 billion, would render many acres of Albania’s coastline unrecognizable.

From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026

Since then, the government granted legal status to dozens of outposts and opened thousands of acres of land to Jewish settlers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

They had worn the scratchy I’ve Been Bad shirts, shoveled manure, crawled across acres of fields pulling weeds.

From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech

Related Words

• acreage
• estate
• plot
• property