field

English Online Dictionary. What means field‎? What does field mean?

English

Etymology

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

Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fjild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German Feld (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”). Related also to Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at fold.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fiːld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fild/
• Rhymes: -iːld

Noun

field (plural fields)

2. A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country.
   1. (usually in the plural) The open country near or belonging to a town or city.
4. A wide, open space that is used to grow crops or to hold farm animals, usually enclosed by a fence, hedge or other barrier.
6. (geology) A region containing a particular mineral.

7. An airfield, airport or air base; especially, one with unpaved runways.
8. A place where competitive matches are carried out.
   2. A place where a battle is fought; a battlefield.
   4. An area reserved for playing a game or race with one’s physical force.
      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.
   5. A place where competitive matches are carried out with figures, or playing area in a board game or a computer game.
   6. A competitive situation, circumstance in which one faces conflicting moves of rivals.
   7. (metonymically) All of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.

9. Any of various figurative meanings, often dead metaphors.
   2. (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.

   3. Any of certain structures serving cognition.
      1. The extent of a given perception.

      2. A realm of practical, direct or natural operation, contrasted with an office, classroom, or laboratory.

      4. A domain of study, knowledge or practice.

      5. An unrestricted or favourable opportunity for action, operation, or achievement.
      7. (algebra) A non-zero commutative ring in which all non-zero elements are invertible; a simple commutative ring.

   4. A physical or virtual location for the input of information in the form of symbols.
      2. (heraldry) The background of the shield.
      4. (vexillology) The background of the flag.
      5. (numismatics) The part of a coin left unoccupied by the main device.
      6. A section of a form which is supposed to be filled with data.
         • 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.

      7. A component of a database in which a single unit of information is stored.
      9. (computing, object-oriented programming) An area of memory or storage reserved for a particular value, subject to virtual access controls.
   5. (electronics, film, animation) Part (usually one half) of a frame in an interlaced signal.
10. (cricket) Archaic form of fielder.

Usage notes

• In the mathematical sense, some languages, such as French, use a term that literally means body. This denotes a division ring or skew field, not necessarily commutative. If it is clear from the context that the quaternions and similar division rings are irrelevant, or that all division rings being considered are finite and therefore fields, this difference is ignored.

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

Hypernyms

• (algebra): Euclidean domain ⊂ principal ideal domain ⊂ unique factorization domain, Noetherian domain ⊂ integral domain ⊂ commutative ring;   simple ring ⊂ local ring

Hyponyms

• (algebra): ordered field, Pythagorean field, residue field, extension field

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: フィールド (fīrudo)

Translations

Further reading

• field on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

field (third-person singular simple present 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.

3. (transitive, sports) To place (a team, its players, etc.) in a game.
4. (transitive) To answer; to address.

5. (transitive) To execute research (in the field).

6. (transitive, military) To deploy in the field.

Synonyms

• (intercept or catch (a ball) and play it):
• (place a team in (a game)):
• (answer, address): address, answer, deal with, respond to

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “be the team throwing and catching the ball”): bat

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Field in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “field”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Fidel, felid, filed, flied

Middle English

Noun

field

1. Alternative form of feeld

Old English

Alternative forms

• fild, fyld, fæld

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *faldi, from Proto-Germanic *faldiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi͜yld/, [fi͜yɫd]

Noun

field m

1. fold, crease (of clothing), plait, wrinkle
2. a revolution, turn, roll
3. (figurative) turn, course (of time)

Declension

Strong i-stem:

Derived terms

• fieldstōl

Related terms

• fealdan

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “fyld”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[2], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey, editors (2018), “fyld”, in Dictionary of Old English: A to I ⁠‎^[3], Toronto: University of Toronto, →OCLC.