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building site

building site

5 2.4
A piece of land where people plan to make or are making houses and other structures
  • noun
  • /ˈbɪldɪŋ saɪt/
translation icon : obra
  • The workers arrived early to start construction at the building site before the weather changed.

I, I was on a building site the other day and this guy came up to me.

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Examples

  • I said, you know, I was working on the busiest building site in the UK.

  • Ground Zero is still a building site after a decade.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I, I was on a building site the other day and this guy came up to me.

  • So I was driving past the building site today.

  • Then one day, I was walking past a building site.

  • More than 1,000 customers have been served, many at multiple building sites.

    Academic text (1996)
  • I was on a building site, and a girder fell from a crane.

  • Darling boy, what is this I hear about you looking into that tragic accident at the Tamron building site?

  • Her real estate work has slowed; private businesses have fewer contracts, and franchisee clients are cutting back on building sites.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Quaid's taut muscles glisten with sweat as he and several workers excavate a rocky building site.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

site
vsbuilding site
1.2

A place where something is now located or will be built

is for land where construction is happening or planned
lot
vsbuilding site
  • US
3.9

A piece of land with fixed boundaries for building

is focused on land used for active or planned construction rather than legal borders
homesite
vsbuilding site
  • US
1 3.3

A piece of land for building a house or with a house on it

is for construction of any building rather than only houses
jobsite
vsbuilding site
  • US
1 3.1

A place where building work happens

is land set aside for construction whether work is happening yet

How Active

worksite
4 2.8
building site
5 2.4
vacant lot
  • US
19 2.8

Surface Forms

building site singular

Morphology

building + site

The meaning 'an area where construction work takes place' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'building' (construction) with 'site' (plot of ground). This noun+noun compound follows a regular compositional pattern that is common across languages and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Building site comes from the simple picture of a place where people are building, with machines, piles of bricks and workers on a piece of land called a site. So, building site means 'an area of land where building work is taking place or is planned'.