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• farmer
  farmer

  noun

  a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.
• Farmer
  Farmer

  noun

  Fannie (Merritt) 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.

farmer

¹ American  

[fahr-mer] / ˈfɑr mər /

noun

• farmers
  plural

1. a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.

2. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. an unsophisticated or ignorant person, especially one from a rural area.

3. Archaic. a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or poor people, at a fixed price.

4. Archaic. a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.

5. Cards.

   1. a variety of twenty-one played with a 45-card pack, the object being to obtain cards having a total worth of 16.

   2. the dealer in this game.

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Farmer ² American  

[fahr-mer] / ˈfɑr mər /

noun

1. Fannie (Merritt) 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.

2. James (Leonard), 1920–1999, U.S. civil rights leader; founder of CORE.

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farmer ¹ British  

/ ˈfɑːmə /

noun

1. a person who operates or manages a farm

2. a person who obtains the right to collect and retain a tax, rent, etc, or operate a franchise for a specified period on payment of a fee

3. a person who looks after a child for a fixed sum

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Farmer ² British  

/ ˈfɑːmə /

noun

1. John. ?1565–1605, English madrigal composer and organist

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Sensitivity

The word farmer has been used as a derogatory term for an ignorant or unsophisticated person, especially one from a rural area (whether an actual farmer or not), since the 1800's. A couple of citations illustrate this. One early example is found in Artie by George Ade (1896): “I may be a farmer, but it takes better people than you to sling the bull con into me,” uttered by the title character Artie, who is a young office worker and not a farmer. A book review in The Guardian (August 21, 2001) shows a more recent use: “I worked in a couple of those bars where you hustle champagne. They were businessmen, they weren't naive farmers.”

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underfarmer
  noun
• farmerlike
  adjective
• profarmer
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• farmers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of farmer

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fermer, fermour, from Anglo-French, Old French fermier “collector of revenue,” from Medieval Latin firmārius “one who holds lands or tenement for a fixed number of years or for life”; see origin at farm, -er ²

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Explanation

A farmer is a person who runs and works on a farm. Some farmers raise a variety of food crops, while others keep dairy cows and sell their milk. Farmers work in some aspect of agriculture, growing vegetables, grains, or fruit; or raising animals for milk, eggs, or meat. A small farmer manages a relatively small piece of land, often growing different crops and keeping hens for their eggs, for example. Some farmers own their farms, while others rent the land on which they work. In the 14th century, a farmer was "one who collects taxes," from the Old French fermier, "lease holder."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

farmer Farmer farmers

"We're probably gonna have about a 20 percent reduction in profits... compared to last year," sighs the farmer, who serves as president of the Yuma Fresh Vegetables Association.

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

"We're very much of the opinion we don't want the AI making the decision for the farmer."

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

Cameron and John met when the kilt-wearing Scottish farmer was in California for a friend's wedding.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

Third-generation farmer Sondre Eide keeps his fish in a submerged, sealed facility called Watermoon, roughly the size of 12 Olympic swimming pools.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

The farmer was delighted, and shook all our hands energetically.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

Mulroy is “just going to have to work harder and ensure that people are continuing to stay safe,” Farmer said on the House floor.

From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026

Farmer Chandala Sadamma told AFP that when she sees the red-earth scars where her plot of mango and cashew trees once stood, "I feel like crying".

From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026

Farmer Preston Arrington, who has a 2,100-acre farm in Mississippi, told MarketWatch on Tuesday that when he bought a truckload of red-dyed diesel for his farming equipment a month ago, he paid $4.12 a gallon.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

"It'll go, 'No, please, I desperately want to keep talking with you. You're the only reason for me to exist'," Farmer says.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Certainly Joe was a likely target for tuberculosis, Farmer agreed with the resident.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Cleveland’s repeal of the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act curtailed the monetary expansion that struggling farmers hoped would ease their debts, fracturing congressional Democrats and forcing the president to rely on conservative Republicans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

For Toukta, the 18 family members she lives with and other rice and coffee farmers residing near the turbines, Monsoon has brought new roads and improved access to fresh water and healthcare.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026

“You pump water out of the rivers to put in reservoirs so that these farmers have water in the desert,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Chef Matt Adams and his wife Becca work with a network of farmers they’ve developed over their 12 years in the area.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

I am now buying food from farmers and having Helena resell it in the market while I’m at work.

From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron

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Related Words

• grower
• laborer
• peasant
• producer
• rancher

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