Fallow

//ˈfæloʊ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year. uncountable
  2. 2
    cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons wordnet
  3. 3
    Uncultivated land. uncountable
  4. 4
    The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season. countable, uncountable

    "By a complete summer fallow, land is rendered tender and mellow. The fallow gives it a better tilth than can be given by a fallow crop."

Verb
  1. 1
    To make land fallow for agricultural purposes. transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
  2. 2
    Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.

    "a fallow deer or greyhound"

  3. 3
    Left unworked and uncropped for some amount of time.
  4. 4
    Inactive; undeveloped. figuratively

    "a fallow period in one's career"

Adjective
  1. 1
    undeveloped but potentially useful wordnet
  2. 2
    left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
unplowedabeyantacarpousachromaticachromicanemic

Example

More examples

"That fallow paddy field does not yield anymore."

Etymology

Etymology 1

[Alt: A photograph of a ploughed field.] From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealh, fealg (“fallow land”), from Proto-West Germanic *falgu (compare Saterland Frisian Falge, West Frisian falig, felling, Dutch valg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *polḱéh₂ (“arable land”) (compare Gaulish olca, Russian полоса́ (polosá)).

Etymology 2

From Middle English falowen, falwen, from Old English fealgian (“to fallow; break up land”), from Proto-West Germanic *falgōn (“to fallow”). Cognate with Dutch valgen (“to plow lightly; fallow”), German Low German falgen (“to till; dig a hole”).

Etymology 3

[Alt: A photograph of a light brown deer.] From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-West Germanic *falu, from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl, French fauve), from Proto-Indo-European *polwos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas (“sallow, wan”), Russian поло́вый (polóvyj, “wan, light yellow”), Serbo-Croatian plâv (“blond, blue”), Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós, “grey”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“pale, gray”).

Related phrases

apple-fallowbastard fallowcropped fallowdead-fallowfallow chatfallow chatfallow cropfallow deerfallow finchfallow finchfallow groundfallow land

More for "fallow"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.