This noun denotes the threshing floor—a hard, flat surface where harvested grain was threshed and winnowed to separate kernels from chaff. Both occurrences appear in John the Baptist's prophecy that the Coming One will thoroughly cleanse his ἅλωνα—threshing floor—gathering wheat into the barn but burning chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). The image draws on harvest practices where grain was trampled or beaten, then winnowed, leaving wheat gathered in one place and chaff in another. John uses this agricultural process as a metaphor for eschatological judgment.