Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

milpa

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.47 in modern English

Syllables: mil-pa
IPA

9

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A cyclical crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica.

Uncountable

noun

A small field, especially in Mexico or Central America, that is cleared from the jungle, cropped for a few seasons, and then abandoned for a fresh clearing.

Countable

Example Sentences

"Milpa is based on seed crops, particularly the uniquely productive combination of maize, beans and squash, and in the past its techniques were normally those of swidden cultivation."
"These three plants are often grown together in a single field called a milpa, the beans creeping up the corn stalks while the squash plants catch along the lower leaves of the corn plants."
"That means that no one can get rich or make someone else rich by farming a milpa. Since it works against capital accumulation, it is antithetical to entrepreneurship. In short, planting a milpa optimizes resources in a very particular way."

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish milpa, from Classical Nahuatl.

Origin

Source language: Spanish

Word Breakdown

Root: milpa, -

Usage

Inflected Forms

milpas (plural)

Questions

What does milpa mean?: A cyclical crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica.
Where does milpa come from?: It is traced to Spanish.

How to pronounce milpa

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