ranch
Americannoun
-
ranches
plural
-
an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions.
-
Chiefly Western U.S. and Canada. a large farm used primarily to raise one kind of crop or animal.
a mink ranch.
-
a dude ranch.
-
the persons employed or living on a ranch.
-
I’ll have the small salad, with ranch on the side.
verb (used without object)
-
ranches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ranched,
past participle, past
-
ranching
present participle
noun
-
a large tract of land, esp one in North America, together with the necessary personnel, buildings, and equipment, for rearing livestock, esp cattle
-
-
any large farm for the rearing of a particular kind of livestock or crop
a mink ranch
-
the buildings, land, etc, connected with it
-
verb
-
(intr) to manage or run a ranch
-
(tr) to raise (animals) on or as if on a ranch
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ranchsimple
-
ranchessimple
-
have ranchedperfect
-
has ranchedperfect
-
am ranchingprogressive
-
are ranchingprogressive
-
is ranchingprogressive
-
have been ranchingperfect progressive
-
has been ranchingperfect progressive
Past
-
ranchedsimple
-
had ranchedperfect
-
was ranchingprogressive
-
were ranchingprogressive
-
had been ranchingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing ranch
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
I took a bite of the buttery Texas toast and the crinkle-cut fries, then dipped them into the creamy, peppery Cane’s Sauce, which tasted something like pickled ranch.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
On YouTube, the very same platform hosting Duffy’s vapid post-vacation slideshow, content abounds showing soccer lovers’ appreciation for our fast-food joints, rowdy dance clubs and ranch dressing.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
He died at his ranch in Texas with family by his side after a stay in hospice, TMZ reported.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
He and Patton acquired a New Mexico ranch and thousands of acres of farmland in Canada.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
“More dangerous than what we encountered last night? Please. He’s probably a ranch hand from some isolated ranchito out there. He might even be from Hacienda Dorada,” Velia said, and opened the door.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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
“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
With bankruptcies doubling in the past year, median farm income is trending downward, and roughly 90% of family-owned farms and ranches rely on alternative sources of income to survive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
She said cattle herds were at lows not seen since the 1950s and that the industry had lost more than 100,000 ranches in the last 10 years.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
And north of Pando is the Brazilian state of Acre, which is also lightly inhabited, but which has seen much of its forest removed to create cattle ranches.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
And now that anything can be ranched, everything is getting ranched.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Wegis and her husband, Jim, have been running their family farm since 1979 near lands where his ancestors homesteaded and ranched in the 1800s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
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
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
“Yak ranching is growing, but it’s still a niche market,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
The U.S. urgently needs a cattle policy worthy of its ranching tradition.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
The only thing he might be just as passionate about as sports, it turns out, is ranching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
But the New Mexico State Land Commission cancelled the leases in September 2019 after the office determined that Epstein had used the tract as a privacy buffer - not for ranching or agriculture.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
Most of those inhabitants depended on ranching, but various droughts made survival almost impossible because of the lack of grazing land for cattle.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
