rancho
Americannoun
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ranchos
plural
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a ranch.
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a hut or collection of huts for herders, laborers, or travelers.
noun
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a hut or group of huts for housing ranch workers
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another word for ranch
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rancho
An Americanism first recorded in 1800–10; from Latin American Spanish: “small farm, camp” ( Spanish: “camp”), from Old Spanish rancharse “to lodge, be billeted,” from Middle French (se) ranger “to be arranged, be installed”; see range
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“What’s the big difference between a city rave and a rancho jaripeo, you know? They’re doing the exact same thing.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Tongva, Chumash and Cahuilla workers in California formed the backbone of rancho agriculture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
Her husband has died from the stress of trying to keep their rancho, her sons live in hardship and her daughter is married to a white man.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025
The rancho libertarians I knew were mostly Mexican Americans, but not exclusively — there were Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, Colombians.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2024
It was all one rancho before you came.”
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
Many other events she’s visited for research have taken her to rented-out parking lots behind warehouses or on privately owned ranchos, she added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025
They’re all part of the galaxy of ranchos around the city of Jerez that has sent tens of thousands of its residents to Southern California over the last 120 years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2022
UC Riverside ethnic studies professor Adrián Félix saw Huizar multiple times at the annual banquets of the Federación de Clubes Zacatecanos del Sur de California, whose members organize fundraisers for their home ranchos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2022
What is astounding is that down to this day, the footprints of these ranchos are still often the same footprints of our modern cities and streets and landmarks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2021
José said if that was uncovered he might as well give up his ranchos.
From The Treasure Trail A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine by Robert Wesley Amick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
