Plantation Meaning
/plænˈteɪʃən/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA large farm; estate or area of land designated for agricultural growth. Often includes housing for the owner and workers.
nounAn area where trees are planted, either for commercial purposes, or to adorn an estate.
Sentence Examples
That farmer cultivated a 200 acre plantation.
He realized a large sum by the sale of the plantation.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers harvested the ripe sugarcane from the large ____ in the south.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The historic ____ covered hundreds of acres and had once been worked by enslaved people.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Middle French plantation, from Latin plantātiō (“planting, transplanting”), from plantātus (“planted”), the perfect passive participle of plantāre, + action noun suffix -tiō.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles."
— 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2019, page 29:
"Across the street from the church, which is lovingly known as Mother Emanuel, is Marion Park. Until recently, this where a statue of Vice President John C. Calhoun, a slaveowner and staunch supporter of antebellum plantation slavery, stood. […] Drayton Hall, one of the oldest surviving plantations in the South, actively encourages visitors to pay respects at the African-American cemetery on site."
— 2020 August 31, Dartinia Hull, “‘Not everything is pretty here’: Charleston tourism reckons with slavery and racism”, in CNN:
"She used to bound through the plantations, her eye first caught by one object, then another, gazing round for something to admire and to love. Now she walked slowly, her eyes fixed on the ground, as if, in all the wide fair world, there was nothing to attract nor to interest."
— 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A First Disappointment”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 268:
"Had I plantation of this Iſle my Lord."
— 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 7:
"The King of Beni, the Lord of seven Kingdomes hath written to mee for Baptisme : but I cannot forsake these two Kings till I have other helpe. This Countrey is as healthfull as any I ever came in, and Sierra Leona would be a fit place for a plantation of the Society : for which King Philip wrote to the Catholike King, offering a place to erect a Fort, and commending the largenesse, wholsomnesse, and fertilitie of his Countrey."
— 1625, Samuel Purchas, “The Jesuites gleanings in Africa to Christian Religion, gathered out of their owne writings”, in Pvrchas His Pilgrimes, volume IX, London, →OCLC, page 263:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers harvested the ripe sugarcane from the large ____ in the south.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The historic ____ covered hundreds of acres and had once been worked by enslaved people.