heath

heath — noun

1. a wide area of natural land covered with wild grasses and low plants, where the

1.nounB2
Definition

a wide area of natural land covered with wild grasses and low plants, where the soil is poor and nothing is grown or built

Example

The children loved running across the heath behind their grandmother's cottage.

Bao walked his dog across the heath every morning before sunrise.

preposition: across the heath

Common collocations
  • open heath
  • dry heath
  • sandy heath
  • heathland
Synonyms
  • moor

    wetter and hillier than heath, with peat soil

  • common

    shared village land that may be used for grazing, not necessarily with poor soil

  • wilderness

    more general term for any wild, uninhabited area

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

the + heath (specific area)

heath as uncountable (land type)

Usage Note

In British English, heath often appears in place names (e.g. Hampstead Heath in London). It is similar to 'moor' but typically refers to lower, drier ground with sandy soil rather than wet, peaty terrain.

Common Mistakes

The area is covered with health.
The area is covered with heath.
'Heath' is a type of land; 'health' is a completely different word about physical condition.

2. a small bush that stays green all year, with tiny bell-shaped flowers, that grow

2.nounC1
Definition

a small bush that stays green all year, with tiny bell-shaped flowers, that grows naturally on sandy or acidic ground

Example

The heath in the front garden blooms with tiny pink flowers from November through February.

blooms + time range (from November through February)

Quinn planted several heath bushes along the sandy edge of the driveway.

countable: individual plants (heath bushes)

Common collocations
  • heath plant
  • heath bush
  • heath flower
  • heath family
Synonyms
  • heather

    often confused with heath; the two belong to different genera within the same family

  • Erica

    the botanical genus name for true heaths

Grammar Patterns

heath + noun (e.g. heath bush, heath plant)

a + heath (individual plant)

Usage Note

Heath (Erica) is a close relative of heather (Calluna). The main visual difference is that heath has needle-like leaves while heather has scale-like leaves. The two names are sometimes used loosely in gardening contexts.

Common Mistakes

The hillside was purple with flowering heath.' (when referring to Calluna vulgaris)
The hillside was purple with flowering heather.
Heather (Calluna) is the plant that typically covers large hillsides with purple flowers; heath (Erica) is a different genus.

Word family

  • heathland
    nounB2
  • heathy
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Heath and moor both describe uncultivated wild land, but the key difference is elevation and soil. A heath sits on low, sandy, well-drained ground, while a moor is higher, wetter, and covered in peat — the popular image of a misty Scottish hillside. A common is a more social kind of land: an area in or near a village that everyone in the community can use for walking or grazing animals. Wilderness is the broadest of the four — it can mean any large, wild, uninhabited place, from a forest to a desert, and carries a stronger sense of being untouched by humans. For example, Hampstead Heath is a famous heath in London where city residents go for walks, while Dartmoor is a vast moorland with deep peat bogs and roaming ponies.

heath ↗moor ↗common ↗wilderness ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • heath fire
  • heath plant
  • heath bush
  • heath family

Phrases

  • open heath
  • dry heath
  • sandy heath

Prepositions

  • across the heath
  • on the heath
  • over the heath

Etymology

Proto-GermanicOld EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Heath comes from Old English 'hǣð', meaning wasteland or uncultivated ground. It is related to Old High German 'heid' (which became German 'Heide'), and all go back to a Proto-Germanic root *haiþī. The plant sense developed because low-growing evergreen shrubs (Ericaceae) are the characteristic vegetation of this type of landscape.