hectar

The hectar, more commonly spelled hectare in English, is a unit of area in the metric system used for measuring land. Its symbol is ha, and it equals 10,000 square meters. The spelling “hectar” appears in some contexts or languages, but “hectare” is the standard English form.

Etymology and relation to other units: The name combines the prefix hecto- (hundred) with the unit are, which is defined as 100 square meters. Therefore, one hectare equals 100 ares, or 10,000 square meters. The hectare is part of the decimal-based metric system and was introduced alongside other metric units in the late 19th to early 20th century.

Conversions and usage: 1 ha = 10,000 m^2 = 0.01 square kilometers. In imperial units, 1 hectare is approximately 2.471 acres. Larger land areas are often expressed in hectares, while smaller plots may be described in square meters or hectares depending on context. One square kilometer equals 100 hectares.

Applications: The hectare is widely used in agriculture, forestry, urban planning, real estate, and land administration to quantify field sizes, farmland, and grazing areas. It provides a practical, scalable measure for land parcels, especially in countries that adopt the metric system. While commonly used internationally, some regions prefer acres or other local units for everyday use, reserving hectares for formal, technical, or standardized reporting.