2.1. "Paddy field" as a farmland with rice and flooded water

The words of "paddy field" are usually and widely used for the farmland, where rice is cultivated, and they generally imply the area flooded, like the definitions of Cambridge Dictionary as "a field planted with rice growing in water" [5], Collins English Dictionary as "a flooded piece of land used for growing rice" [6], and The Free Dictionary as "a field, often flooded with water, in which rice is grown" [7]. The definition of "paddy field," however, is intricate slightly. Fundamentally "paddy" means "rice" especially in the husk. Consequently, a "paddy field" means a field planted with rice. Some dictionaries describe that only "paddy" could mean "paddy field," without any word for indicates the space, like the definition of the Oxford Living Dictionary as "A field where rice is grown" [8], and of Merriam-Webster as "wet land in which rice is grown" [9], while it also show the meaning as "Rice before threshing or in the husk."

Since rice is usually grown in level basin flooded with water throughout most of the growing season, "paddy field" generally means "a field flooded with water for growing rice," and the definitions of "paddy field" in most of the current dictionaries include words of "rice" and "water" or "flood," as introduced above.

In Japan, the English words "paddy field" is translated to the Japanese word "suiden," while there this word "suiden" is used for flooded farm land, which distinguishes "flooded field" from "upland field" or "hatake" in Japanese. The upland field is not flooded and cultivated for normal crops like vegetables and flowers. Accordingly, in Japan, it is expressed that some aquatic crops like lotus and tatami are cultivated in "paddy fields." This Japanese case is recognized as an exceptional case. In this chapter, "paddy field" is to be used basically as "a field planted with rice."

As mentioned below, actually, in considerable area in the world, rice is produced in fields without flooding. Then, some parts of paddy fields of the world are not identified as the "wetland" with water submergence.
