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• ranger
  ranger

  noun

  forest ranger.
• Ranger
  Ranger

  noun

  a member of the senior branch of the Guides

ranger

American  

[reyn-jer] / ˈreɪn dʒər /

noun

• rangers
  plural

1. forest ranger.

2. one of a body of armed guards who patrol a region.

3. (initial capital letter) a U.S. soldier in World War II specially trained for making surprise raids and attacks in small groups.

4. a soldier specially trained in the techniques of guerrilla warfare, especially in jungle terrain.

5. a person who ranges or roves.

6. (especially in Texas) a member of the state police.

7. British. a keeper of a royal forest or park.

8. Building Trades. wale.

9. (initial capital letter) one of a series of instrumented U.S. space probes launched in the 1960s that transmitted closeup pictures of the moon before impacting the lunar surface.

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ranger ¹ British  

/ ˈreɪndʒə /

noun

1. (sometimes capital) an official in charge of a forest, park, estate, nature reserve, etc

2. Brit equivalent: warden.  a person employed to patrol a State or national park or forest

3. one of a body of armed troops employed to police a State or district

   a Texas Ranger

4. (in the US and certain other armies) a commando specially trained in making raids

5. a person who wanders about large areas of country; a rover

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Ranger ² British  

/ ˈreɪndʒə /

noun

1. a member of the senior branch of the Guides

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Ranger ³ British  

/ ˈreɪndʒə /

noun

1. any of a series of nine American lunar probes launched between 1961 and 1965, three of which transmitted to earth photographs of the moon

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underranger
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• rangers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ranger

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at range, -er ¹

Explanation

A ranger is a person who takes care of a park or a piece of land. A park ranger makes sure the rules are followed and provides information to visitors. Someone who takes a job as a forest ranger might patrol an area of wooded land, watching for fire danger and enforcing the rules. A ranger's tasks can vary from teaching kids about local plants and animals to fighting fires to arresting people who break laws in a state or national park. The original rangers were British employees of the king or queen who would "range" throughout the woods looking for poachers — people who illegally hunted on royal land.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ranger Ranger rangers

In April, the Superior Court dismissed the three citations Hubbard received in May 2025 when no park ranger or city attorney appeared for the prosecution, his lawsuit states.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

Richard Kinsey, senior biodiversity ranger at the Department of Conservation, was part of the dive team that encountered the coral.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

A ranger told AFP he had not seen an elephant once in 12 years patrolling.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

Gareth Jones, lead ranger at Clumber Park, said the funding would allow the project to move "from discovery to recovery".

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

A ranger shone his flashlight on their faces and then fumbled with his keys.

From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins

Its sales consistently dwarf those of competitors like the Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

Rich Klaben, a dealer with Ford and Jeep-Ram stores in Kent, Ohio, pines for the smaller Ford Ranger that his family dealership used to sell in droves in the 1980s and 1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

It was “traumatizing, seeing that stuff on display for so long and then seeing it come down,” said James Ranger, a veteran hotel tour guide and Mission Inn Foundation docent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

One Ranger cracked a rib after his snowmobile flipped over, but "he kept on going", Lt-Col Hanes said.

From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026

But what could even a Ranger see except a confused trail of orc-feet?

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Cardiff Rugby academy players stumbled on Christopher's bathtub while carrying out essential maintenance work on the mountain, and helped rangers retrieve it.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

John Mosby and his rangers from using the county’s farms for food and shelter, the Union Army burned more than 200 barns in the winter of 1864.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Because of cloud cover limiting movement by a helicopter, rangers traveled on foot to reach the hiker, who was lowered down to Lake Helen, according to the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

AFP joined conservationists, rangers and locals this month as they retrieved and replaced cameras and microphones in the forest.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

“How many rangers has the Weeper killed?” asked Othell Yarwyck.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin