rancho
Americannoun
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ranchos
plural
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a ranch.
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a hut or collection of huts for herders, laborers, or travelers.
noun
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a hut or group of huts for housing ranch workers
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another word for ranch
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rancho
An Americanism first recorded in 1800–10; from Latin American Spanish: “small farm, camp” ( Spanish: “camp”), from Old Spanish rancharse “to lodge, be billeted,” from Middle French (se) ranger “to be arranged, be installed”; see range
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:
Tongva, Chumash and Cahuilla workers in California formed the backbone of rancho agriculture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
He was leaving their rancho of La Cañada, Zacatecas for el Norte.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025
As the eldest of four brothers, raised by parents from a small rancho in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, she was embedded in a culture where machismo ran deep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
In late October, Huizar traveled back to the rancho after U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
It was all one rancho before you came.”
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
In the 1980s, he and other men from the ranchos of Jerez, Zacatecas, began to play in Sunday league games against men from other Mexican states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
UC Riverside ethnic studies professor Adrián Félix saw Huizar multiple times at the annual banquets of the Federación de Clubes Zacatecanos del Sur de California, whose members organize fundraisers for their home ranchos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2022
You recognize the names of some of the vast, vanished ranchos that have marked the maps of Southern California for a couple of centuries.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2021
These ranchos were an economic and political system unto themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2021
While following the trail through the long succession of ranchos, jungle, hamlets, he lived over again that first ride with Francesca.
From The Mystery of The Barranca by Herman Whitaker
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.
