subsistence farming
noun
Simple meaning
Farming in which almost all of the livestock raised or crops produced are used by the farmer and their family to survive.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
suhbsistuhnsfahrmingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
səbˈsɪstənsˈfɑɹmɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
agriculture
Farming in which almost all of the livestock raised or crops produced are used by the farmer and their family to survive, without significant surplus for sale or trade.
agriculture
Farming that provides for the basic needs of the farmer without surpluses for marketing
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (agriculture) Farming in which almost all of the livestock raised or crops produced are used by the farmer and their family to survive, without significant surplus for sale or trade.
Used this way, subsistence farming is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.