What does arability mean?
Arability is the noun for the quality of being suitable for cultivation, especially the ease with which soil or land can be ploughed and made to support crops. It is a precise but uncommon term, appearing chiefly in agricultural, geographical, and land-management discussion, where it distinguishes a site's cultivation potential from the actual yield of a particular crop. A statement about arability may consider factors such as the ground's structure, drainage, and response to cultivation, although the word by itself does not specify which factors are being assessed. Arable is the far more familiar adjective from the same word family, while arability supplies the corresponding abstract noun. In careful prose, the noun often appears in a possessive construction, as in “the soil's arability,” or in an “of” phrase, as in “the arability of the valley.” The term is useful when land must be discussed as a cultivable resource rather than simply described as productive or unproductive. Because it is uncommon, a plainer alternative such as cultivability may occasionally sound more natural.
nounThe quality of being arable, especially the ease with which soil or land can be ploughed and used to grow crops. Historically, the word could also mean liability to taxation, particularly in the older fiscal sense of arable land.
- The quality or condition of being suitable for cultivation, especially the ease with which land or soil can be ploughed and made productive.
- Historical: liability to taxation, particularly in the older fiscal sense of arable land.
"Agronomists assess the soil's arability before recommending suitable crop rotations."
"Agronomists assess the soil's arability before recommending suitable crop rotations."
"The proposed development was reconsidered after an ecological survey questioned the site's arability."
Rare and normally unnecessary, since arability is usually treated as an uncountable quality.
"The report compared the arabilities of several smallholder farms."
Arability turns the plough from a tool into a measure of what the earth can become.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does arability come from?
Arability was formed in English by adding the suffix -ity to arable. Arable came through Old French from Latin arabilis, a derivative of arāre, “to plough.” The same Latin verb underlies arator, aration, and aratory, while the modern noun arability chiefly expresses the cultivable quality of land.
How arability is actually used
The noun is uncommon in everyday English and tends to occur in formal, agricultural, geographical, historical, and land-management writing. It is usually treated as a mass noun, although a plural is grammatically possible.
Easily confused with arability
Arability is the noun naming the quality of land or soil as cultivable, whereas arable is normally the adjective meaning suitable for ploughing and growing crops.