plural peatlands
: land rich in peat (see peat entry 1 sense 1a)
For hundreds of years, dark brown peat from some of the most unspoiled peatlands in Scotland has provided the people … with their annual supply of fuel for heating and cooking.—Alan Simpson
Peatlands have also come into sharp focus over the past 20 years because they are the largest and most concentrated global store of carbon of all terrestrial ecosystems, containing twice the carbon of the forest biomass.—Anja Murray
Estates in the Highlands are often not fertile enough for profitable farming and the properties are large, making it easier to do tree-planting or peatland restoration that sequesters carbon at scale.—The Economist

Examples of peatland in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The haze comes primarily from western Indonesia where forest and peatland fires often are started to clear land for farming. — ABC News, 27 Oct. 2026 Yet the planet continues to lose several thousand square kilometers (hundreds of thousands of hectares) of peatlands every year due to drainage, agriculture, and other human land uses. — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026 In a post on X Thursday night, Wong said the government was looking into companies potentially responsible for the forest and peatland fires in Indonesia. — Jenny Lee,zechariah Chan, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2026 In Indonesia, unusually dry conditions are fueling a cascading series of forest and peatland fires. — The Week Us, TheWeek, 13 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for peatland

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1560, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of peatland was circa 1560

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Cite this Entry

“Peatland.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peatland. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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