English
field
see also: Field
Etymology

From Middle English feeld, feld, from Old English feld, from Proto-West Germanic *felþu, from Proto-Germanic *felþuz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- or *pleth₂- (with schwebeablaut).

Cognate with Scots feld, feild, Northern Frisian fjild, Western Frisian fjild, Dutch veld, German Feld, Swedish fält. Related also to Old English folde, Old English folm. More at fold.

Pronunciation 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. (usually, in the plural) The open country near or belonging to a town or city.
      • 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 ↗:
        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.
  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.
  3. (geology) 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 competitive matches are carried out.
    1. A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.
    2. 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.
      1. (baseball, 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).
      2. (baseball) The outfield.
    3. A place where competitive matches are carried out with figures, or playing area in a board game or a computer game.
    4. A competitive situation, circumstance in which one faces conflicting moves of rivals.
    5. (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.
  6. Any of various figurative meanings, often dead metaphors.
    1. (physics) 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
    2. Any of certain structures serving cognition.
      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.
        He needs some time in the field before his judgment can be trusted.
      3. A domain of study, knowledge or practice.
        He was an expert in the field of Chinese history.
      4. An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.
        • 1875, Anthony Trollope, chapter 2, in The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:
          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.
      5. (algebra) A commutative ring satisfying the field axioms.
        The set of rational numbers, \mathbb{Q}, 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. The subtractive operator may be derived by combining the additive and the unary negative operators; the divisive operator may be derived by combining the multiplicative and the unary inversive operators.)
    3. A physical or virtual location for the input of information in the form of symbols.
      1. (heraldry) The background of the shield.
      2. (vexillology) The background of the flag.
      3. (numismatics) The part of a coin left unoccupied by the main device.
      4. 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.
      5. A component of a database in which a single unit of information is stored.
      6. (computing, object-oriented programming) An area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls.
    4. (electronics, film, animation) Part (usually one half) of a frame in an interlaced signal.
  7. (cricket) Archaic form of fielder
Synonyms
  • (course of study or domain of knowledge) area, domain, sphere, realm
  • (area reserved for playing a game) course (for golf), court (for racquet sports), ground, pitch (for soccer, rugby, cricket)
  • (location for the input of information) input field, box
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

field (fields, present participle fielding; simple past and past participle fielded)

  1. (transitive, sports) To intercept or catch (a ball) and play it.
  2. (intransitive, baseball, softball, cricket, 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, sports) To place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.
    The away team fielded two new players and the second-choice goalkeeper.
  4. (transitive) To answer; to address.
    She will field questions immediately after her presentation.
  5. (transitive) To defeat.
    They fielded a fearsome army.
  6. (transitive) To execute research (in the field).
    He fielded the marketing survey about the upcoming product.
  7. (transitive, military) To deploy in the field.
    to field a new land-mine detector
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “be the team throwing and catching the ball”): bat
Translations Translations Translations
Field
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. An unincorporated community near Field Hill within Yoho National Park, British Columbia, named after Cyrus West Field.
  3. A community in West Nipissing, Northeastern.
  4. An unincorporated community in Bell County, Kentucky.
  5. A neighbourhood in Nokomis, Minneapolis.
  6. A locality in south-east South Australia.
  7. A hamlet in Leigh, East Staffordshire (OS grid ref SK0233).


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