Topsoil

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The upper layer of soil, typically most fertile and in which it is the easiest to start new plants. countable, uncountable

    "Little grew on the farm, after the floods from the hurricane washed away the topsoil."

  2. 2
    the layer of soil on the surface wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To remove the topsoil from. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
acresalluvionalluviumarable landbandbed

Example

More examples

"Your body is on loan from the planet. All the countless numbers of people who have lived on this planet before you and me have all become topsoil, and so will you. This planet will collect back atom by atom what it has loaned to you."

Etymology

From top + soil.

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