Definition

1. Noun:

   • An area of open land, often used for cultivation or pasture: A piece of land, typically enclosed, used for growing crops or grazing animals.
   • A piece of land used for a specified purpose, especially a sports arena: A defined area where a game or sport is played.
   • A particular branch of study, sphere of activity, or profession: A specific area of knowledge, interest, or commercial activity.
   • All participants or competitors in a contest: The collective group of players, teams, or horses taking part in a race or competition.
   • (Physics) A region in space under the influence of some force: An area where a physical force (e.g., magnetic, electric, gravitational) has an effect.
   • (Computing) A basic unit of data in a record: A set of adjacent characters treated as a single piece of information.
   • A battlefield: A region where a battle is or has been fought.

2. Verb:

   • (In sports) To catch or stop a ball and return it: To act as a fielder in games like cricket or baseball by stopping or catching the ball.
   • To put a team or player into a game to compete: To select and deploy a team or individual player for a match.
   • To deal with or respond to something skillfully: To handle a series of questions, comments, or a situation adeptly.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The farmer planted a field of wheat. (The farmer cultivated an area of land with wheat.)
  • The soccer match will be held on the main field. (The game will take place on the primary sports ground.)
  • She is a leading expert in her field of neuroscience. (She is a top specialist in her specific area of scientific study.)
  • The entire field of runners was very competitive this year. (All the competitors in the race were highly competitive.)
  • The iron filings revealed the shape of the magnetic field. (The filings showed the region affected by magnetic force.)

• Verb:

  • The cricket player managed to field the ball cleanly. (The player successfully stopped and returned the cricket ball.)
  • The coach decided to field a team of experienced players. (The coach chose to put a team of veterans into the game.)
  • The CEO fielded difficult questions from the press with confidence. (The CEO handled tough press inquiries skillfully.)

Advanced Usage

• "To hold the field": To maintain one's position or argument successfully against opposition.

  • His theory held the field for over a decade before being challenged. (His theory remained the accepted one for more than ten years.)

• "To take the field": (For a team) to go onto the playing area to begin a game. (For an army) to begin a campaign.

  • The players took the field to the sound of cheering fans. (The players entered the sports arena as fans cheered.)

• "A level playing field": A situation in which everyone has a fair and equal chance to succeed.

  • The new regulations aim to create a level playing field for all businesses. (The rules are designed to ensure fair competition.)

Variants and Related Words

• Fieldwork (n): Practical work conducted by a researcher in the natural environment rather than in a laboratory or office.

  • The anthropologist spent a year doing fieldwork in a remote village.

• Fielder (n): (In sports like cricket or baseball) a player stationed in the field to stop or catch the ball.

• Field trip (n): A journey made by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment for education or research.

Synonyms

• Noun: Area, domain, sphere, arena, pasture, meadow, ground.
• Verb: Handle, answer, respond to, deal with, catch, stop.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Field questions: To answer a series of questions, often from an audience or the media.
  • After the lecture, the professor stayed to field questions from students.

Related Idioms

• "To play the field": To date or have romantic relationships with many different people, without committing to one.

  • He's not ready to settle down; he's still playing the field.

• "Out in left field": (Informal) To be strange, unconventional, or completely mistaken.

  • His suggestion was so out in left field that no one took it seriously.

Verb

1. select (a team or individual player) for a game
   • The Buckeyes fielded a young new quarterback for the Rose Bowl
2. answer adequately or successfully
   • The lawyer fielded all questions from the press
3. play as a fielder
4. catch or pick up (balls) in baseball or cricket

Noun

1. a place where planes take off and land
2. the area that is visible (as through an optical instrument)
3. (computer science) a set of one or more adjacent characters comprising a unit of information
4. a geographic region (land or sea) under which something valuable is found
   • the diamond fields of South Africa
5. all the competitors in a particular contest or sporting event
6. all of the horses in a particular horse race
7. a region in which active military operations are in progress
   • the army was in the field awaiting action
   • he served in the Vietnam theater for three years
8. (mathematics) a set of elements such that addition and multiplication are commutative and associative and multiplication is distributive over addition and there are two elements 0 and 1
   • the set of all rational numbers is a field
9. extensive tract of level open land
   • they emerged from the woods onto a vast open plain
   • he longed for the fields of his youth
10. a piece of land prepared for playing a game
    • the home crowd cheered when Princeton took the field
11. a particular environment or walk of life
    • his social sphere is limited
    • it was a closed area of employment
    • he's out of my orbit
12. a particular kind of commercial enterprise
    • they are outstanding in their field
13. the space around a radiating body within which its electromagnetic oscillations can exert force on another similar body not in contact with it
14. a branch of knowledge
    • in what discipline is his doctorate?
    • teachers should be well trained in their subject
    • anthropology is the study of human beings
15. somewhere (away from a studio or office or library or laboratory) where practical work is done or data is collected
    • anthropologists do much of their work in the field
16. a region where a battle is being (or has been) fought
    • they made a tour of Civil War battlefields
17. a piece of land cleared of trees and usually enclosed
    • he planted a field of wheat