crop
B1Neutral to formal. Common in agricultural, business, media, and everyday contexts.
Definition
Meaning
A plant, especially a cereal, fruit, or vegetable, grown in large quantities by a farmer for food or other use.
1) To cut something short or to appear/reduce to a certain amount. 2) A group or amount appearing at one time. 3) A short haircut. 4) The pouch-like part of a bird's throat where food is stored. 5) A short whip used in horse riding.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
The noun forms are largely countable (e.g., 'a good crop of apples', 'wheat crops'). The verb 'crop up' (to appear unexpectedly) is idiomatic and common in informal speech.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
Minimal. The agricultural and photographic/cutting senses are identical. 'Crop top' (a short top) is slightly more informal in UK English.
Connotations
Equally neutral. 'To crop' (hair) may be slightly more common in UK hairdressing terminology.
Frequency
Agricultural sense is equally frequent in both. The verb sense 'to cut' is common in both, especially in tech/digital contexts (cropping an image).
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
crop N (e.g., crop the image)crop up (intransitive)crop N from N (e.g., crop the head from the photo)be cropped (passive)Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “crop up”
- “neck and crop (archaic, meaning 'completely')”
- “crop someone's feathers (to humble someone)”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Refers to annual production output, e.g., 'The company's cash crops are coffee and cocoa.'
Academic
Used in agricultural science, economics (crop yields, sustainability), and media studies (cropping images).
Everyday
Talking about farming, photography ('crop the picture'), or unexpected events ('A problem has cropped up').
Technical
In agriculture: specific cultivars. In computing: a function in image-editing software. In geology: 'outcrop' (rock cropping out).
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- You'll need to crop the image before uploading it.
- Several issues cropped up during the meeting.
- She's had her hair cropped short for summer.
American English
- Crop the screenshot to highlight the error.
- The question cropped up again in the interview.
- The photographer cropped the bystander out of the frame.
adverb
British English
- Not typically used as an adverb.
American English
- Not typically used as an adverb.
adjective
British English
- She wore a crop top with high-waisted jeans.
- The report is a crop survey for the Ministry.
American English
- Crop tops are popular in warm weather.
- Crop dusting is common in the Midwest.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- Farmers grow crops in the fields.
- I will crop this photo.
- The main crop in this region is rice.
- We had a problem crop up yesterday.
- He has a neat crop haircut.
- The government subsidises certain cash crops.
- The new manager quickly cropped the underperforming staff from the team.
- A whole crop of new social media apps appeared last year.
- Sustainable crop rotation is essential for soil health.
- The film director chose to crop the scene to intensify the claustrophobic atmosphere.
- Despite the initial planning, constitutional challenges kept cropping up.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Imagine a farmer cutting (cropping) the top of a ripe wheat plant to gather the harvest.
Conceptual Metaphor
IDEAS/EVENTS ARE PLANTS ('a new crop of startups'; 'problems cropped up').
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid translating 'crop' as 'культура' in non-agricultural contexts (e.g., 'crop photo' is not 'культура фото').
- The verb 'to crop up' (всплывать, возникать) is unrelated to agriculture.
- 'Crop top' is a clothing item, not related to plants.
Common Mistakes
- Using 'crop' as an uncountable noun for a single type of plant (e.g., 'We grow crop' instead of 'We grow a crop / crops').
- Confusing 'crop' with 'harvest' (harvest is the action/time or the yield itself; crop is the plant while growing or the yield).
Practice
Quiz
What does it mean if an issue 'crops up'?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Primarily countable when referring to a plant yield (e.g., 'the potato crop', 'various crops'). It can be uncountable in very general contexts (e.g., 'land under crop').
'Crop' refers to the cultivated plants themselves or the season's yield. 'Harvest' primarily refers to the process of gathering the crop or the yield that has been gathered.
Yes. It's commonly used metaphorically for groups of people or things appearing together (e.g., 'this year's crop of graduates') and in technology for trimming images or audio.
It is neutral but more common in spoken and informal written English. In very formal writing, alternatives like 'arise' or 'emerge' might be preferred.