What does agro mean?
Agro is an informal, chiefly British term for agriculture — the business and practice of cultivating land and raising crops and livestock. It is typically used when farming is being discussed as an industry or economic sector rather than as a science, so one might read about investment flowing into agro or policy changes affecting the agro economy. The word carries a casual, journalistic tone and sits alongside a family of compound formations built on the same root, such as agro-business, agro-industry, and agro-ecology, which attach the prefix 'agro-' to other fields. It should not be confused with 'aggro', a piece of British slang meaning hostile or aggressive behaviour, despite the near-identical spelling. For readers outside Britain, 'agro' may be unfamiliar, but within British media and everyday speech it serves as a handy shorthand for the world of farming and rural enterprise.
nounAn informal British term for agriculture or the farming industry, especially treated as a sector of business or economic activity.
- Agriculture or the farming industry, especially viewed as a business or economic sector (informal, chiefly British).
"After university she went to work in agro, managing a large arable farm in Norfolk."
"The government's new subsidies are aimed squarely at agro, hoping to keep small farms viable."
"He grew up in agro and knows the economics of dairy farming better than any consultant."
Rarely pluralised; the singular covers the industry as a whole.
"The report compared agros across several developing economies."
One letter separates 'agro' (farming) from 'aggro' (a pub brawl) — a mix-up that has caught out more than one writer.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of agro
Agro derives from the Greek 'agros', meaning field or open country, which passed into Latin as 'ager' and gave rise to the combining form 'agro-'. English borrowed this formative element in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to build technical compounds such as agriculture's relatives agronomy and agrarian, and later popular abbreviations like agro itself. The standalone noun emerged as an informal clipping of these longer agricultural terms, chiefly in British usage.
How agro is actually used
Chiefly British and informal in register; it is rarely used in formal agricultural science writing, where terms like 'agriculture' or 'agronomy' are preferred. In American English the word is uncommon, though the prefix 'agro-' appears freely in compounds such as agrochemical.
Easily confused with agro
Aggro is British slang for aggressive trouble-making behaviour, whereas agro refers to agriculture and farming.
An agora was an ancient Greek public marketplace and assembly space, unrelated to farming.