Word.ws English Dictionary

field

/ˈfi(ː)ld/

field noun: a land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country. Also the archaic form of fielder.

field: a land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country
Image: Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

field (plural fields)

  1. A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country.
    • There are several species of wild flowers growing in this field.
    1. (plural-normally) The open country near or belonging to a town or city.
      • Harry shook his head, and wandered away miserable through the fields, and would not in these days even set his foot upon the soil of the park. “He was not going to intrude any farther,” he said to the rector. “You can come to church, at any rate,” his father said, “for he certainly will not be...1883, Anthony Trollope, Mr. Scarborough's Family, Chap. XXIV
      • I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
  2. A wide, open space that is used to grow crops or to hold farm animals, usually enclosed by a fence, hedge or other barrier.
    • There were some cows grazing in a field.
    • A crop circle was made in a corn field.
    1. When coupled with a number (e.g. two-field) used to define types of crop rotation, denoting the number of different crop types (and possibly fallow) that are used.
  3. A region containing a particular mineral.
    • an oil field; a gold field
  4. An airfield, airport or air base; especially, one with unpaved runways.
  5. A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.
    • Tarry, sweet soul, for mine; then fly abreast,
      As in this glorious and well-foughten field
      We kept together in our chivalry!c. 1599, William Shakespeare, King Henry V, act IV, scene VI
    • […] What though the field be lost?
      All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,
      And study of revenge, immortal hate,
      And courage never to submit or yield,
      And what is else not to be overcome;
      That glory never shall his wrath or might!1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, Verses 105–110
  6. An area reserved for playing a game or race with one’s physical force.
    • soccer field
    • Substitutes are only allowed onto the field after their boots are checked.
  7. (obsolete) The team in a match that throws the ball and tries to catch it when it is hit by the other team (the bat).
  8. The outfield.
  9. A place where competitive matches are carried out with figures, or playing area in a board game or a computer game.
  10. A competitive situation, circumstance in which one faces conflicting moves of rivals.
    • Dr. Finn understood enough of elections for Parliament, and of the nature of boroughs, to be aware that a candidate’s chance of success is very much improved by being early in the field.1869, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn, Chap. XXV
  11. (metonymically) All of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.
    • This racehorse is the strongest in a weak field.
  12. A physical phenomenon (such as force, potential or fluid velocity) that pervades a region; a mathematical model of such a phenomenon that associates each point and time with a scalar, vector or tensor quantity.
    • magnetic field; gravitational field; scalar field
Show 12 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The extent of a given perception.
    • field of view
  2. A realm of practical, direct or natural operation, contrasted with an office, classroom, or laboratory.
    • The design needs to be field-tested before we commit to manufacture.
    • Field work traditionally distinguishes true archaeologists from armchair archaeologists.
  3. A domain of study, knowledge or practice.
    • As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, page 30
    • He was an expert in the field of Chinese history.
    Synonyms:
    area, domain, sphere, realm
  4. An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.
    • Penn was without doubt a man of eminent virtues. He had a strong sense of religious duty and a fervent desire to promote the happiness of mankind. On one or two points of high importance, he had notions more correct than were, in his day, common even among men of enlarged minds: and as the...1848, Thomas Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History Of England From the Accession of James II, volume 1
    • Tidings had reached her of this and the other man’s success, and,—coming near to her still,—of this and that other woman’s earnings in literature. And it had seemed to her that, within moderate limits, she might give a wide field to her hopes.1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, chapter 2, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC
  5. A non-zero commutative ring in which all non-zero elements are invertible; a simple commutative ring.
    • The set of rational numbers, #92;mathbb#123;Q#125;, is the prototypical field.
    • Whereas a ring has three binary operators: (1) an additive operator, (2) a subtractive operator, and (3) a multiplicative operator, a field has four binary operators: the three ring binary operators and (4) a divisive operator. (N.B.: Only the additive and multiplicative operators are axiomatic....
  6. The background of the shield.
    • The field of the arms (shield), which is vert (green), represents the open country of Great Britain.1957 February, “B.T.C. Armorial Bearings”, in Railway Magazine, page 81
  7. The background of the flag.
  8. The part of a coin left unoccupied by the main device.
  9. A section of a form which is supposed to be filled with data.
    • The form has fields for each element of the customer's home address and shipping address.
    • PHP 5 Forms Required Fields at W3Schools
      From the validation rules table on the previous page, we see that the "Name", "E-mail", and "Gender" fields are required. These fields cannot be empty and must be filled out in the HTML form.
  10. A component of a database in which a single unit of information is stored.
  11. (object-oriented programming) An area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls.
    • Read-only fields allow you to establish a point of data whose value is not known at compile time, but that should never change once established.2007, Andrew Troelsen, Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition, page 82
  12. (animation) Part (usually one half) of a frame in an interlaced signal.

Verb

field (third-person singular simple present fields, present participle fielding, simple past and past participle fielded)

  1. (transitive) To intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
  2. (intransitive, and other batting sports) To be the team catching and throwing the ball, as opposed to hitting it.
    • The blue team are fielding first, while the reds are batting.
  3. (transitive) To place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.
    • The away team fielded two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.
    • On balance, it was harsh on Hearts, who had given as good as they got against their more-fancied opponents, who, despite not being at full strength, fielded a multi-million pound team.2012 August 23, Alasdair Lamont, “Hearts 0-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
  4. (transitive) To answer; to address.
    • She will field questions immediately after her presentation.
    Synonyms:
    address, answer, deal with, respond to
  5. (transitive) To execute research (in the field).
    • He fielded the marketing survey about the upcoming product.
  6. (transitive) To deploy in the field.
    • to field a new land-mine detector

Proper noun capitalized: Field

Field

  1. A surname.
    • Her book includes an incisive discussion of misogyny on the New Right. [Laura K.] Field notes how “gynocracy” and “the longhouse” have become overwrought MAGA epithets for an unbearably feminized and pluralist society.2025 December 17, Jennifer Szalai, “The Intellectuals Fueling the MAGA Movement”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
  2. A community near Field Hill within Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada, named after Cyrus West Field.
  3. A community in West Nipissing, Northeastern Ontario, Canada.
  4. An unincorporated community in Bell County, Kentucky, United States.
  5. A neighbourhood of Nokomis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
  6. A locality in Coorong council area, south-east South Australia.
  7. A hamlet in Eardisley parish, Herefordshire, England (OS grid ref SO3050).
  8. A neighbourhood in Shepton Mallet parish, Somerset, England, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST6142).
  9. A hamlet in Leigh parish, East Staffordshire district, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SK0233).

Also used as

field is also the archaic form of fielder.

field meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

field in Hindi

land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country
क्षेत्र kṣetra, खेत khet
wide, open space used to grow crops or to hold farm animals
खेत khet
sports: area reserved for playing a game
मैदान maidān, फ़ील्ड fīlḍ, क्रीड़ाक्षेत्र krīṛākṣetra
physics: region affected by a particular force
क्षेत्र kṣetra, प्रभाव-क्षेत्र prabhāv-kṣetra

field in Urdu

land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country
کھیت khet, مَیدان maidān
sports: area reserved for playing a game
مَیدان maidān, فِیلْڈ fīlḍ

field in Bengali

land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country
ক্ষেত্র khetro

field in Telugu

wide, open space used to grow crops or to hold farm animals
చేను cēnu, పొలము polamu
course of study or domain of knowledge or practice
రంగం raṅgaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
field in Gujarati
ક્ષેત્ર kṣetra
field in Odia
କ୍ଷେତ୍ର kṣetra
field in Sanskrit
अज्र ajra, क्षेत्र kṣetra
field in Sinhala
ක්ෂේත්රය kṣētraya
field in Pashto
ميدان maydãn, مزرعه mazra'á
field in Tagalog
larang
field in Arabic
حَقْل ḥaql, ضَيْعَة ḍayʕa, سَهْل sahl, مَيْدَان maydān
field in Malay
bidang, padang
field in Indonesian
bidang, padang, medan, ladang
field in Persian
مَیدَان maydān, مِیدان meydân, رِشْتَه rišta, رِشْتِه rešte
field in Thai
สนาม sà-nǎam, ทุ่ง tûng, ไร่ râi, นา naa
field in Vietnamese
cánh đồng, ruộng, trường, lĩnh vực
field in Myanmar
လယ်ပြင် lai-prang, လယ်ယာ laiya, လယ် lai, ပြင် prang
Kashmiri
مٲدان mạ̄dān, فیٖلڈِنٛگ کَرٕنؠ fīlḍing karụn'
Dzongkha
ཞིང zhing

Examples of field in a sentence

  • He needs some time in the field before his judgment can be trusted.
  • Harry shook his head, and wandered away miserable through the fields, and would not in these days even set his foot upon the soil of the park.1883, Anthony Trollope, Mr. Scarborough's Family, Chap. XXIV:
  • “[…] I shall take out half a dozen intelligent maistries from our Press and get them to give our villagers instruction when they begin work and when they are in the fields.”1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 5, in Pulling the Strings:

All 40 example sentences with field

Synonyms of field

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of field

Forms of field

Noun
pluralfields
Verb
third-person singular presentfields
present participlefielding
past participlefielded
pastfielded
Proper noun
alternative formFeild

Past tense of field: fielded

Plural of field: fields

Origin of field

From Middle English feld, feeld (“field”), from Old English feld (“field”), from Proto-West Germanic *felþu (“field”), from Proto-Germanic *felþuz (“field”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“field, plain”) or *pleth₂- (“flat”) (with schwebeablaut). Cognates Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fial, fälj (“field”), Saterland Frisian Fäild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German and Luxembourgish Feld (“field”), Vilamovian fald (“field”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk felt (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”), Finnish pelto (“field”), Asturian and Leonese platu (“plate”), Aragonese and Spanish plato (“plate”), Catalan plat (“plate”), French plat (“dish”), Galician, Mirandese, and Portuguese prato (“plate”), Italian piatto (“plate”), Latin *plattus (“flattened”), Greek πλατύς (platýs, “wide, broad”). Doublet of plate. Related also to Middle English flat (“flat”), Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at flat, fold. Not related to English felt.

Words formed from field

Phrases with field

178 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with field

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about field

What does field mean?
Field means a land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country.
What is field in Hindi?
Field in Hindi is क्षेत्र (kṣetra), खेत (khet), मैदान (maidān). See Field meaning in Hindi.
How do you use field in a sentence?
He needs some time in the field before his judgment can be trusted.
What part of speech is field?
Field can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce field?
Field is pronounced /ˈfi(ː)ld/.
What is the plural of field?
The plural of field is fields.

Words near field in the dictionary

  1. Fiegel
  2. Fiegels
  3. Fiegerman
  4. Fiegermans
  5. Fiel
  6. field
  7. field allowance
  8. field allowances
  9. field ambulance
  10. field ambulances
  11. field application engineer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: field (page history and authors); Field (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-field.ogg, en-au-field.ogg.

Cite this entry: “field.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/field. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.