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.
They also exploited wild plants and kept livestock.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026
It's hugely unpopular among French livestock farmers and has not been implemented by several members of the bloc, including France.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
“The decision to enter livestock represents a significant competitive development, particularly as market participants evaluate execution costs, trading technology, liquidity, and alternative hedging opportunities,” says PJ Quaid of StoneX in a note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Wilbur’s group was initially concerned about parts of the bill focused on livestock compensation, but he said they were amended in a way to avoid impeding how the program operates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
It was a grazing field, unplowed, unmown, without any livestock in it.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
