Jump To:

• bighorn
  bighorn

  noun

  a wild sheep, Ovis canadensis, of the Rocky Mountains, with large, curving horns.
• Bighorn
  Bighorn

  noun

  a river flowing from central Wyoming to the Yellowstone River in S Montana. 336 miles (540 km) long.

bighorn

¹ American  

[big-hawrn] / ˈbɪgˌhɔrn /

noun

• bighorns,
  plural
• bighorn
  plural

1. a wild sheep, Ovis canadensis, of the Rocky Mountains, with large, curving horns.

---

Bighorn ² American  

[big-hawrn] / ˈbɪgˌhɔrn /

noun

1. a river flowing from central Wyoming to the Yellowstone River in S Montana. 336 miles (540 km) long.

---

bighorn British  

/ ˈbɪɡˌhɔːn /

noun

1. a large wild sheep, Ovis canadensis , inhabiting mountainous regions in North America and NE Asia: family Bovidae , order Artiodactyla . The male has massive curved horns, and the species is well adapted for climbing and leaping

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bighorn
  plural
• bighorns
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bighorn

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; big ¹ + horn

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bighorn Bighorn bighorns

Harmon alerted stakeholders, including Aiello, who was immediately concerned about how the wire might affect a herd of bighorn sheep that migrates across the border.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

That’s where she came across the dead bighorn ram.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

The passages won’t be large enough for bighorn — with their broad horns — to squeeze through, advocates say.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

The bighorn herd that straddles the frontier will be severed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2026

Akira was so surprised she almost jumped out of her saddle, but like the other animals, the bighorn sheep barely noticed that she and Dodger were there.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

Gen. George Armstrong Custer lost the Battle of the Little Bighorn six weeks after the exhibition opened, but the government’s Indian wars went on.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

After West neglected the ranch, the rapper, 48, returned the 6,713-acre Bighorn Mountain Ranch to the Flitner family, who first sold it to him in 2019.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 31, 2025

The battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was a high point, but not a turning point.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2024

Sitting with my wife, Judy, in our 1896 cabin in the Bighorn Mountains during a snowstorm, with a fire burning, discovering an author I’ve never read before.

From New York Times ● May 30, 2024

Less than an hour later they turned right at the exit to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III

Desert bighorns are acrobats with soft, rubbery feet and spiraling horns that once thrived in mountain ranges across the Mojave Desert, where they formed a “metapopulation” of groups connected by ancient trails.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2021

“A wildlife overcrossing here would serve both bighorns and modern travelers.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2021

Thirty bighorns were brought to the Catalinas that year and more were brought in each of the next three years.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 23, 2017

Rep. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, said there are 13 bighorns in the area compared to 82,000 domestic sheep.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 26, 2015

For example parasites introduced through domestic sheep that wander into the range of bighorns within the Park might endanger the bighorn population.

From Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado by Sydney Anderson