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:
They’re believers in rancho libertarianism, my neologism for the individualistic politics exemplified by the Mexican men who raised me and who I grew up with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Tongva, Chumash and Cahuilla workers in California formed the backbone of rancho agriculture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 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
The late William Lyon was a prominent developer, yes, but far more fundamental to Orange County is his contemporary, Don Bren, whose Irvine Co. spans the county’s eras, from rancho days to master-planned suburbs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2024
It was all one rancho before you came.”
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
Our social life was centered on my parents’ native ranchos, whose residents transplanted themselves from Zacatecas to Southern California along with their music, culture and español.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
During weekends, they played ball — my dad still remembers a game at Sycamore Junior High in Anaheim that featured single men from the ranchos against married men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
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
He laughed when I told him about my long-ago Jomulquillo anecdote and said he’s heard similar stories in recent years from other ranchos around Jerez.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2022
Leaving the main road at the Marisma, we entered a pathway, closely sheltered by trees and foliage, and after two hours rapid marching, halted at a cluster of ranchos by the roadside.
From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise
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.
