homestead
noun
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.
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homestead
1 American
[hohm-sted, -stid]
/ ˈhoʊm stɛd, -stɪd /
noun
-
homesteads
plural
-
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.
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a tract of land acquired under the Homestead Act.
-
a house in an urban area acquired under a homesteading program.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Homestead
2
American
[hohm-sted, -stid]
/ ˈhoʊm stɛd, -stɪd /
noun
homestead
British
/ ˈhəʊmˌstɛd, -stɪd /
noun
-
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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of homestead
First recorded before 1000; Old English hāmstede; equivalent to home + stead
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing homestead
There's No Word Like Home
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Purple Hibiscus
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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:
A surviving spouse has the right to occupy the homestead for the rest of their life, even if it is separate property or was gifted to a third party.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
The exemption only applies to Florida residents who are permanent and who have applied for what’s called the homestead exemption, and would only count toward non-school taxes.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Periodically, the soft-spoken and generous man flies his Cessna into town to scavenge soda pop for a dozen or so cherubic Mennonite children on a nearby homestead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Their homestead fed the family during the Great Depression and supplied the timber to build the main home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
His own father had been one of Seattle’s most prominent pioneers, establishing a large homestead in the city’s Ravenna Park area, just north of the university.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
The Homestead Act settled Americans in large numbers in the trans-Mississippi West.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2025
As a high school student in San José, Chavez-Garcia knew none of this history — “we learned more about the Homestead Act in the Midwest,” she joked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025
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
Thomas thought that was strange, but apparently there wasn’t enough room 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
Years ago, I made a white-knuckled jet-boat trip deep into the Idaho backcountry, where a trail of blossoming lilacs marked former homesteads along the Salmon River.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2024
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
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