terrain

See also: Terrain and tèrrain

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French terrain, from Latin terrenum (“land, ground”), neuter of terrenus (“consisting of earth”), from terra (“earth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /təˈɹeɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

Noun

terrain (countable and uncountable, plural terrains)

1. (geology) A single, distinctive rock formation; an area having a preponderance of a particular rock or group of rocks.
2. An area of land or the particular features of it.

   The race will be run over a variety of terrain, including grass and sand.

3. (chiefly aviation) The surface of the earth; the ground.

   This approach requires the aircraft to stay at an altitude of at least 3000 feet MSL until crossing the VOR in order to maintain terrain clearance.

   controlled flight into terrain

   TOO LOW, TERRAIN

Synonyms

• (area of land): ground

Derived terms

• all-terrain
• all-terrain vehicle
• controlled flight into terrain
• controlled flight into terrain
• height above average terrain
• human terrain
• linguistic terrain
• terrain awareness and warning system
• terrain park
• terrain theory

 

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ters- (0 c, 37 e)

Translations

area

• Albanian: reliev (sq) m
• Arabic: مِنْطَقَة (ar) f (minṭaqa), أَرْض (ar) f (ʔarḍ), مِسَاحَة f (misāḥa)
• Armenian: տեղանք (hy) (teġankʻ)
• Azerbaijani: relyef, ərazi (az)
• Belarusian: мясцо́васць f (mjascóvascʹ), мясцо́васьць f (mjascóvasʹcʹ), рэлье́ф m (relʹjéf)
• Bulgarian: ме́стност (bg) f (méstnost), тере́н (bg) m (terén), реле́ф (bg) m (reléf)
• Catalan: terreny (ca) m
• Chamicuro: c̈hijta
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地域 (zh) (dìyù), 地形 (zh) (dìxíng)

• Czech: terén (cs) m, reliéf (cs) m
• Danish: terræn n
• Dutch: terrein (nl) n, reliëf (nl) n
• Esperanto: tereno
• Estonian: reljeef, pinnareljeef
• Finnish: maasto (fi)
• French: terrain (fr) m
• Friulian: teren m
• Galician: terreo (gl) m
• Georgian: რელიეფი (reliepi)
• German: Terrain (de) n, Gelände (de) n, Land (de) n, Relief (de) n
• Greek: έδαφος (el) n (édafos), έκταση (el) f (éktasi)
• Hungarian: terep (hu)
• Indonesian: medan (id)
• Italian: terreno (it) m, tratto (it) m, estensione (it) f, spianata (it) f, territorio (it) m, zona (it) f
• Japanese: 地域 (ja) (ちいき, chiiki), 地形 (ja) (ちけい, chikei)
• Khmer: លក្ខណៈភូមិសាស្ដ្រនៃដី (lɔɔkkhɑɑnaʼphuumisaahdrɑɑnɨydəy)
• Korean: 지형(地形) (ko) (jihyeong), 지역(地域) (ko) (jiyeok)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: reljefs (lv) m, apvidus m
• Lithuanian: reljefas (lt) m, vietovė f
• Macedonian: терен m (teren), релјеф m (reljef)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: terreng n

• Plautdietsch: Launtschoft f
• Polish: teren (pl) m
• Portuguese: terreno (pt) m
• Romanian: teren (ro) n
• Russian: ме́стность (ru) f (méstnostʹ), релье́ф (ru) m (relʹjéf)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тѐре̄н m

  Roman: tèrēn (sh) m

• Slovak: terén m, reliéf m
• Slovene: teren m
• Spanish: terreno (es) m
• Swedish: terräng (sv) c
• Thai: ภูมิประเทศ (th) (puu-mí-bprà-têet), ลักษณะภูมิประเทศ
• Turkish: arazi (tr)
• Ukrainian: місце́вість f (miscévistʹ), рельє́ф m (relʹjéf)

Further reading

• “terrain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• rantier, retrain, trainer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French terrain, terrein, from Vulgar Latin *terranum, from Latin terrēnum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛ.ʁɛ̃/

• Audio (CA):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

terrain m (plural terrains)

1. ground, landscape
2. field (as in soccer field)

   Un nouveau terrain de football a été aménagé l’an dernier. ― A new soccer field was built last year.

3. lot, plot, parcel

Derived terms

• gagner du terrain
• glissement de terrain
• milieu de terrain
• perdre du terrain
• préparer le terrain
• sur le terrain
• tâter le terrain
• terrain à bâtir
• terrain de chasse
• terrain de jeu
• terrain d’entente
• terrain miné
• terrain vague
• vélo tout terrain

 

Descendants

• → Czech: terén
• Norwegian:

  → Norwegian Bokmål: terreng

  → Norwegian Nynorsk: terreng

• → Swedish: terräng

Further reading

• “terrain”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• rentrai, ternira, trainer, traîner

Romansch

Alternative forms

• terren (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan)
• taragn (Sutsilvan)
• teragn (Surmiran)

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *terranum, from Latin terrenum.

Noun

terrain m (plural terrains)

1. (Puter, Vallader) land, soil
2. (Puter) country, land

   Synonym: (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) pajais