ranch

American  

[ranch] / ræntʃ /

noun

• ranches
  plural

1. an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions.

2. Chiefly Western U.S. and Canada. a large farm used primarily to raise one kind of crop or animal.

   a mink ranch.

3. a dude ranch.

4. the persons employed or living on a ranch.

5. ranch house.

6. ranch dressing.

   I’ll have the small salad, with ranch on the side.

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verb (used without object)

• ranches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ranched,
  past participle,  past
• ranching
  present participle

1. to manage or work on a ranch.

ranch British  

/ rɑːntʃ /

noun

1. a large tract of land, esp one in North America, together with the necessary personnel, buildings, and equipment, for rearing livestock, esp cattle

2. 1. any large farm for the rearing of a particular kind of livestock or crop

      a mink ranch

   2. the buildings, land, etc, connected with it

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verb

1. (intr) to manage or run a ranch

2. (tr) to raise (animals) on or as if on a ranch

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ranchless
  adjective
• ranchlike
  adjective
• unranched
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ranches
  plural

Participles

• ranching
  present
• ranched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ranch
  simple
• ranches
  simple
• have ranched
  perfect
• has ranched
  perfect
• am ranching
  progressive
• are ranching
  progressive
• is ranching
  progressive
• have been ranching
  perfect progressive
• has been ranching
  perfect progressive

Past

• ranched
  simple
• had ranched
  perfect
• was ranching
  progressive
• were ranching
  progressive
• had been ranching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ranch
  simple
• will have ranched
  perfect
• will be ranching
  progressive
• will have been ranching
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ranch

An Americanism dating from 1800–10; from Spanish rancho “farm, cattle farm, ranch”; see origin at rancho

Explanation

A ranch is a large farm that raises animals, generally grazing animals like cows or sheep. If you dream of raising big, strange-looking birds, you could decide to have an emu or an ostrich ranch instead. Ranches raise animals for meat, and in the case of sheep or alpacas, for wool. When you work on a ranch, you can say that you ranch. A ranch is also a type of single-story, simple house architecturally influenced by the western, informal style of working ranches, which first appeared in the 1950s in the Western US. Ranch comes from the Spanish rancho, first "group of people who eat together" and later "group of farm huts."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ranch ranches ranched ranching

It was named The Ponderosa after the ranch in the hit US Western television series, Bonanza.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

A public gravel road traverses the ranch on the way to a U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

For me, this is often cottage cheese ranch or a punchy vinaigrette — mostly because Future Me is considerably more enthusiastic about eating vegetables when there is something good to drag them through.

From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026

Outside, the ranch is surrounded by lush landscaping, while a tranquil reflection pond adds to its secluded, countryside atmosphere—despite the estate’s location in the heart of Los Angeles.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

So, at three in the morning, the attorney parked his Model T at the ranch and went to sleep in the car.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Ken Boulay, the CEO of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said it’s time to move forward and imagine what the park could be like without cattle and private ranches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

These ranches once supported families, small towns, local stores and restaurants, feed suppliers, truckers, veterinarians, and entire rural communities.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

“God bless her. She let me go out and live on ranches and run with other people to get away from him.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

When it came to buying ranches, “price never really got in the way for Ted,” Taylor said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

Echoes persisted of the 1986 crash, when the area had become a scavenger hunt for repossessed Lear jets, Mercedeses, mobile homes, oil rigs, ranches, and two-bedroom houses with walls so thin they seemed translucent.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger

And now that anything can be ranched, everything is getting ranched.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

In the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt hunted and ranched as a young man in the Badlands of what is now western North Dakota.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023

These ancient wetlands had been plundered for timber, then ranched, and finally acquired by the state in the 1970s to nurture back to life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2021

When Letseoma was growing up in this house, her father had farmed and ranched and had owned horses, cattle, sheep, and chickens.

From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2021

As Grandpa got older he ranched less and farmed more, until one day he stopped farming.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

That was the number of ranching families whose property was on the path needed for “Running Fence.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

“Yak ranching is growing, but it’s still a niche market,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

Namgyal worked in Alaska, New York City and finally Colorado, the place most resembling Nepal and the epicenter of yak ranching in the United States.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

The show depicts the power struggles between patriarch John Dutton III, his children, the locals, and the outsiders seeking to change their bucolic ranching way of life.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

“In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months.”

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Related Words

• dairy farm
• estate
• homestead
• land
• plantation