An airfield is a place where aircraft can take off and land. Think of it as a simpler version of an airport: it has runways (long, flat strips where planes roll during takeoff and landing), but it might not have terminals, control towers, or the other buildings you'd find at a major airport.

Some airfields are small grass strips in rural areas where private pilots fly small planes for fun or business. Others are military bases where fighter jets and cargo planes operate. During World War II, thousands of temporary airfields were built quickly near battlefronts so military planes could refuel and rearm close to where they were needed.

The word emphasizes the field part: the actual physical space where flying happens. A crop duster might use a simple airfield that's just a cleared strip of land near farms. Bush pilots in Alaska land at remote airfields that are little more than gravel runways carved out of the wilderness. While all airports are airfields, not all airfields are airports: many exist solely for the practical work of getting aircraft safely on and off the ground, without any of the restaurants, shops, or passenger services you'd expect when traveling commercially.