a·cre
 acre
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- pronunciation:
- eI
k
r
- features:
- Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
noun |
| definition: |
a unit of area equal to 43,560 square feet, used to measure land. The acre is a standard unit of measurement in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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The word
acre comes from the early English word
acer. This word simply meant "a ploughed field." When the word "acre" was first used for an amount of land, it meant the amount of land that a pair of oxen could plough in one day. A three-acre field might differ in size from region to region. Later a law was passed in England that made an acre a standard unit of area.