Battlefield
nounThe piece of ground on which a battle is or was fought.
How to spell battlefield
11 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce battlefield
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does battlefield mean?
- nounThe piece of ground on which a battle is or was fought.
Battlefield in a sentence
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The museum tour ended at the historic battlefield where the armies clashed.
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Soldiers carried the wounded away from the battlefield under heavy fire.
Where does battlefield come from?
Language of origin: French
This is a transparent compound of two older English words. 'Battle' came into English in the 1200s from the Old French 'bataille', which traces back to the Late Latin 'battualia', meaning 'fighting exercises' or 'sword practice', built on the verb 'battuere', 'to beat or strike'. 'Field' is the native Old English word 'feld', meaning 'open land' or 'cleared ground', and it has Germanic cousins across Dutch and German. The two halves were joined to name the patch of open ground where an army fought, and the combined form 'battlefield' is recorded from around the 1500s. Because both elements are familiar everyday words, the spelling holds no surprises once you remember it is written as a single solid word, not 'battle field'.
How the word is built
- battle (combat, fight)
- field (open ground, area)
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