a dwelling with its land and buildings, occupied by the owner as a home and exempted by a homestead law from seizure or sale for debt.
any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home.
a tract of land acquired under the Homestead Act.
a house in an urban area acquired under a homesteading program.
a house or estate and the adjoining land, buildings, etc, esp a farm
(in the US) a house and adjoining land designated by the owner as his fixed residence and exempt under the homestead laws from seizure and forced sale for debts
(in western Canada) a piece of land, usually 160 acres, granted to a settler by the federal government
the owner's or manager's residence on a sheep or cattle station; in New Zealand the term includes all outbuildings
First recorded before 1000; Old English hāmstede; equivalent to home + stead
A homestead is a house and surrounding land owned by a family — often, it includes a farmhouse. Most people have homes, but not everyone has a homestead: that means your family owns more than a house. The homestead often consists of a farmhouse and land devoted to crops or animals. You'll find a lot more homesteads in rural areas than in cities. Often, a homestead is passed down from parents to children for generations.
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The proposed constitutional amendment would increase the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The standard homestead exemption knocks $2,000 off the assessed value of all primary residences.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
This is the stage set for the release of Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel “Yesteryear,” a satirical thriller in which Christian tradwife influencer Natalie awakes in an 1855 homestead with no explanation and no escape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
Odinga was buried nearby at his late father's homestead, where there is a family mausoleum.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2025
We needed every ear of that corn if we wanted to make good on our homestead claim.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
Consider a historic footnote from World War II. Shortly after Pearl Harbor in 1941, all the Germans and Japanese in their embassies in Washington were sent under guard to the luxurious Greenbrier and Homestead resorts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
The uprooting of prairies across the Great Plains and the Dust Bowl could not have occurred without the massive settler movement triggered by the Homestead Act of 1862.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2025
Sylvester Fernandez, 73, planned to wait out the hurricane at his home in Homestead near Miami, but early Wednesday was woken by the sound of a warning on his phone.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2024
Urban Homestead makes compost enriched with poultry poop to feed its soil, but if you don’t have access to good compost, use potting soil, he said, and add rock dust, worm castings and minerals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2024
Without smiling or even waiting for a response, Newt walked away, yelling at people to finish up and get inside the Homestead.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
Neighbors judge one another for selling off family homesteads to developers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
Fittingly, they have been called, in more recent years, seasteads, after the homesteads of the American West.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
Organizations like the Cultural Burn Association have been working with landowners to set portions of farms and homesteads alight.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2024
Staff from the agency’s Chicago office planned to survey storm damage Wednesday in the Gibson City area, where at least two homesteads suffered damage and power lines were knocked down.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 4, 2023
The subdivisions proud residents seeded their lawns and planted trees for shade, hosting patio parties and many a club meeting at their homesteads.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
