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any particular extent of space or surface; part:
the dark areas in the painting; the dusty area of the room.
a geographical region; tract:
the Chicago area; the unsettled areas along the frontier.
any section reserved for a specific function:
the business area of a town; the dining area of a house.
extent, range, or scope:
inquiries that embrace the whole area of science.
field of study, or a branch of a field of study:
Related areas of inquiry often reflect borrowed notions.
a piece of unoccupied ground; an open space.
the space or site on which a building stands; the yard attached to or surrounding a house.
British, (def 1).
the quantitative measure of a plane or curved surface; two-dimensional extent.
Anatomy. a zone of the cerebral cortex having a specific function:
The damage to Broca’s area affected his speech.
Historical Examples

The system of line-coordinates allied to the areal system of point-coordinates has special interest.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6 Various

noun
any flat, curved, or irregular expanse of a surface

the extent of a two-dimensional surface enclosed within a specified boundary or geometric figure: the area of Ireland, the area of a triangle
the two-dimensional extent of the surface of a solid, or of some part thereof, esp one bounded by a closed curve: the area of a sphere

a section, portion, or part: an area of the body, an area of the sky
region; district; locality: a mountainous area

a geographical division of administrative responsibility
(as modifier): area manager

a part or section, as of a building, town, etc, having some specified function or characteristic: reception area, commercial area, slum area
Also called areaway. a sunken area, usually enclosed, giving light, air, and sometimes access to a cellar or basement
the range, extent, or scope of anything
a subject field or field of study
any unoccupied or unused flat open piece of ground
the ground on which a building stands, or the ground surrounding a building
(anatomy) any of the various regions of the cerebral cortex
(computing) any part of a computer memory assigned to store data of a specified type
adj.

1670s, from Latin arealis, from area (see area).
n.

1530s, “vacant piece of ground,” from Latin area “level ground, open space,” used of building sites, playgrounds, threshing floors, etc.; of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to arere “to become dry,” on notion of a burned clearing or dry, bare space. The generic sense of “amount of surface (whether open or not) contained within any set of limits” is from 1845. Area code in North American telephone systems is attested from 1959.

area ar·e·a (âr’ē-ə)
n. pl. ar·e·as or ar·e·ae (-ē-ē’)

A circumscribed surface or space.

All of a part that is supplied by a given artery or nerve.

A part of an organ having a special function.

area
(âr’ē-ə)
The extent of a surface or plane figure as measured in square units.
see: gray area