livestock
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of livestock
Explanation
The animals you find on a farm are collectively called livestock. Your herd of dairy goats are livestock, but your toy poodle is just a pet. Livestock are distinguished from other animals by the fact that they're domesticated and raised for food or money — if you get wool, milk, meat, or eggs from animals, they're livestock. The word comes from the sense of stock that means "supply for future use" or "sum of money; from the 1500s, this word was also used to mean "movable property of a farm."
Vocabulary lists containing livestock
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Down on the Farm
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The United States
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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.
Adult flies are capable of traveling miles while searching for hosts, but infected livestock, pets, birds, and other wildlife can also help carry the parasite into new areas.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Without treatment, severe infestations can badly injure or kill livestock and wildlife.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
After the war, booming livestock production drove demand for protein-rich soybean meal.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
The work will also build on innovative use of GPS livestock collars to manage grazing more precisely.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Even the same crows perched on the fence near the livestock pens.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
