Relating to or covering a large geographic area; pertaining to the surface or region of something rather than just a point or line.
From Latin 'area' (open space, threshing floor) + '-al' (adjective suffix). The word evolved in geographical and scientific terminology to describe things measured or understood in terms of their area rather than their length.
In geography and ecology, 'areal' is the adjective geographers prefer because 'areay' sounds wrong—the '-al' suffix is one of English's favorite ways to turn nouns into adjectives, like magic.
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