athletic field
3
2.1
- noun
- /æθˈlɛtɪk fiːld/
:
campo deportivo
- That's 50 minutes every day, starting today, on the athletic field.
- application of compost on athletic fields
- use the athletic field
Examples
-
PK and Morrie stand by a side gate near the athletic field, looking alertly about.
Fiction book (1992) -
Professional sports teams, universities, high schools, and local recreation departments across the South have installed Tifsport on athletic fields.
Academic text (2002) -
The only thing he ever did on an athletic field was to play in the school band.
-
On the other side of the athletic fields was the administration building.
Fiction book (1990) -
You can see the athletic fields next to the football field are now underwater.
-
The historic athletic field has been host to the annual Battle of the Flowers Band Festival every April since 1941.
Academic text (2004) -
Many universities expect the coaches to be successful on the athletic field; performance in the classroom may become a secondary priority.
Academic text (1993) -
Athletic fields often need more organic content, and they typically suffer from compaction.
Academic text (1996) -
Faintly, we could hear, too, the boisterous shouts of students from the athletic fields and the roar of a passing car.
Fiction book (1994) -
The city built a new athletic field for local students to practice their sports.
Synonyms
713
1.0
An area marked for playing sports like soccer
57
1.0
A rectangular area with lines and goals where players play football
34
2.6
An area of ground marked for playing sports like soccer
14
1.0
An area of grass or artificial grass marked for playing soccer with goalposts
12
1.2
A grassy area with a diamond-shaped infield where people play baseball
8
1.9
A place where people play baseball
5
1.5
An area of land prepared and marked for playing sports
1
1.8
An area marked and prepared for sports, like a field or court
How Suitable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an area prepared for playing sports' is directly and literally composed from 'athletic' (relating to sports) + 'field' (a playing ground), so a learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE. This noun + noun/adj + noun composition is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Spanish 'campo deportivo') and follows regular English compounding patterns, making it transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Athletic field comes from a simple picture of people playing on open land: athletic means sport and field is flat ground. People would make the grass flat or mark the ground for running and games, so the phrase now means 'an area for sports'.