heath
Pluralheaths
- 1An area of open, level, uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation.
The army trained on the heath because nothing grew there but gorse and heather.
Many of the region's lowland heaths were plowed up for farmland in the last century.
UsageUsually on the heath or across the heath.
Similarheathland, moorland, moor
Note
The idea is ground left unplowed, and in Shakespeare's Macbeth it is where the witches arrange to meet: "Upon the heath, / There to meet with Macbeth." The compound heathland names the same open country.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The etymological sense includes untilled ground. en.wiktionary.org
- Macbeth is Shakespeare’s play. en.wiktionary.org
- The witches arrange to meet Macbeth on the heath; the quoted words belong to the Second and Third Witches respectively. en.wikisource.org
- Heathland is a compound of heath and land. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Any of various small evergreen shrubs of the heather family (Ericaceae) and related plants, such as Erica, Cassiope, Daboecia, Phyllodoce, and the Australian heaths Epacris and Leucopogon.
Low heath grew thickly between the rocks on the windswept slope.
The nursery sells a dozen kinds of heath for rock gardens.
Note
The name ranges across the whole family Ericaceae, so a qualifier often does the identifying. Plain heath serves for Erica, Cassiope and Daboecia; Australian heath is Epacris, beard heath Leucopogon and mountain heath Phyllodoce.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The botanical sense includes shrubs in the family Ericaceae. en.wiktionary.org
- The listed heath genera include Erica, Cassiope and Daboecia. en.wiktionary.org
- Epacris includes plants called Australian heath. en.wiktionary.org
- Leucopogon includes plants called beard heath. en.wiktionary.org
- Phyllodoce includes plants called mountain heath. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Any of several butterflies or moths called heaths, especially brown butterflies of the genus Coenonympha (such as the small and large heath) and moths such as the common and latticed heath.
By morning the moth trap held two heaths among the dozen species we identified.
On sunny days in June, the small heath is one of the most common butterflies on the open hills.
Note
The name is a label shared across several genera rather than one species, and each insect wears it with a qualifier: the latticed heath and common heath are moths, the small and large heath are Coenonympha butterflies, and the heath fritillary puts the word in front. A bare heath, as in a tally of two heaths, leaves the species open, so give the full name whenever it matters which insect is meant.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The insects called heaths belong to several genera rather than a single species. en.wiktionary.org
- The latticed heath is a moth. en.wikipedia.org
- The common heath is a moth. en.wikipedia.org
- The small heath is a butterfly of the genus Coenonympha. en.wikipedia.org
- The large heath is a butterfly of the genus Coenonympha. en.wikipedia.org
- Heath fritillary is an insect name beginning with heath. en.wikipedia.org
Practice
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Origin
The root is Proto-Indo-European *kayt- ("forest, wasteland, pasture"). It gave Proto-Germanic *haiþī ("heath, waste, untilled land") and Proto-West Germanic *haiþi, then Old English hǣþ ("heath, heather, untilled land, waste") and Middle English heeth, heth, hethe. Relatives include Dutch heide ("moorland, heath"), German Heide ("moor, heath"), Norwegian hei and Swedish hed ("heath"), and Welsh coed ("forest"), and perhaps also the Latin element -cetum ("place of, grove of") seen in būcētum ("pastureland", literally "cow-pasture").