1. Plural of arpen; a unit of land area formerly used in French-speaking regions, especially in colonial North America and France.
Usage: historical; chiefly used in historical and legal contexts relating to French colonial land grants

Examples

• The land deed specified that the property measured forty arpens.
• French colonists in Louisiana measured their farmland in arpens.
• Historical records show the plantation was divided into several arpens.
• The surveyor calculated the estate at two hundred arpens.