barn

¹ American  

[bahrn] / bɑrn /

noun

1. a building for storing hay, grain, etc., and often for housing livestock.

2. a very large garage for buses, trucks, etc.; carbarn.

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verb (used with object)

1. to store (hay, grain, etc.) in a barn.

barn ² American  

[bahrn] / bɑrn /

noun

Physics.

1. a unit of nuclear cross section, equal to 10 −24 square centimeter. b

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barn ¹ British  

/ bɑːn /

noun

1. a large farm outbuilding, used chiefly for storing hay, grain, etc, but also for housing livestock

2. a large shed for sheltering railroad cars, trucks, etc

3. any large building, esp an unattractive one

4. (modifier) relating to a system of poultry farming in which birds are allowed to move freely within a barn

   barn eggs

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barn ² British  

/ bɑːn /

noun

1. b. a unit of nuclear cross section equal to 10 ^{– 28} square metre

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barn Idioms  

1. see can't hit the broad side of a barn; lock the barn door after the horse is stolen.

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Other Word Forms

• barnlike
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of barn¹

before 950; Middle English bern, Old English berern ( bere ( see barley ¹) + ern, ǣrn house, cognate with Old Frisian fīaern cowhouse, Old High German erin, Gothic razn, Old Norse rann house; cf. ransack, rest ¹)

Origin of barn²

First recorded in 1945–50; special use of barn ¹

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Explanation

A barn is an outbuilding on a farm used to keep animals or crops safe and dry. A farmer might store hay in the upper part of a barn, and have stalls for horses in the main section. In rural areas there are many barns, often built from wood and standing near a main farmhouse. Some barns have wide doors with stalls for animals inside, and a hayloft at the top, where hay or other crops can be stored. In Old English, a barn or bereærn literally meant "barley house," from bere, "barley," and aern, "house."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

barn

The other horse people she hangs out with at the barn, where Juni lives, come from “every possible income level and political belief, and they’re all kind of shoved together,” Hanawalt tells me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Located about 30 minutes outside of Nashville, the retreat offers a fishing lake, one-bedroom cottage, and large barn for storage or entertaining.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

And additional thanks to Lorne Michaels, who knows a ratings/headlines cow when he sees one, even if he doesn’t want to house him in his own barn at the end of the night.

From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2026

The cottage has gas-powered convection heaters, but in an adjacent barn a stack of firewood will help to keep Olena warm in the event of power cuts.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

It might be some remote barn or shepherd’s hut or forester’s shack—it didn’t matter.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

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Related Words

• outbuilding
• shed

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