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.
He said: "This trade-off is being made because of the faith in the vaccine technology, which to date has offered excellent coverage to livestock in affected areas of the UK."
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The legislation also codifies a program to compensate ranchers when they lose livestock to wolves or suffer indirect harm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Wildlife, livestock and vegetation are not as fortunate.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
A forgotten vegetable once viewed as peasant or livestock food is enjoying an unlikely comeback in Somerset as a festival in its honour takes place this weekend.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Set back on the land were pens for cattle, sheep and hogs; and around and about were sheds and houses belonging to the men who worked the docks and shipped the livestock.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
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.
