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:
It’s not every day you see a stand-up comic saunter onstage looking straight from the rancho to make a room full of people laugh all their problems away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
They’re believers in rancho libertarianism, my neologism for the individualistic politics exemplified by the Mexican men who raised me and who I grew up with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Tongva, Chumash and Cahuilla workers in California formed the backbone of rancho agriculture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 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
My family is from the north-central Mexico state of Zacatecas, where baseball is king and even volleyball was more popular in the ranchos of my parents than futbol.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
He laughed when I told him about my long-ago Jomulquillo anecdote and said he’s heard similar stories in recent years from other ranchos around Jerez.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 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
You recognize the names of some of the vast, vanished ranchos that have marked the maps of Southern California for a couple of centuries.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2021
That is how they are saying now about Granados and La Partida, and at the last our señorita will have no herds, and no ranchos, and no people but me.
From The Treasure Trail A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine by Robert Wesley Amick
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
