topsoil

English

Etymology

From top +‎ soil.

Noun

topsoil (countable and uncountable, plural topsoils)

1. (horticulture) The upper layer of soil, typically most fertile and in which it is the easiest to start new plants.

   Little grew on the farm, after the floods from the hurricane washed away the topsoil.

   • 2013, Al Gore, “Outgrowth”, in The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change‎^[1], New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 183:

     Without urgent action, the majority of the Earth’s topsoil could be severely degraded or lost before the end of this century. In China, topsoil is being lost fifty-seven times faster than this natural replacement process; in Europe seventeen times faster.

Translations

the most fertile soil, easiest to start new plants in

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 表土 (zh) (biǎotǔ)

• Czech: ornice (cs) f
• Finnish: pintamaa
• French: sol superficiel m
• German: Mutterboden (de) m, Muttererde (de) f
• Hawaiian: lepo uhi
• Hungarian: termőtalajréteg, termőtalaj (hu), termőföld (hu), talajréteg (hu)
• Ingrian: pintamaa, leipämaa
• Italian: soprassuolo m
• Korean: 겉흙 (geotheuk), 표토(表土) (pyoto)
• Macedonian: жи́вица f (žívica)
• Maori: paraumu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: matjord m or f

  Nynorsk: matjord f

• Romansch: terratsch m, terra naira f
• Spanish: suelo superficial m
• Swedish: matjord (sv) c
• Tagalog: dayagsulip
• Welsh: uwchbridd m

See also

• garden soil

Verb

topsoil (third-person singular simple present topsoils, present participle topsoiling, simple past and past participle topsoiled)

1. (transitive) To remove the topsoil from.

Anagrams

• Pilotos, Politos, oil spot, poloist