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

George W. Bush spent as much time as possible at the West Texas ranch he bought just before assuming the presidency.

From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026

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

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

He lost an estimated 3 million to 4 million trees at his ranch near his hometown of Canadian, in what became known as the Smokehouse Creek Fire.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has listed the sprawling Los Angeles ranch where he housed his horses for nearly $30 million—decades after abandoning controversial plans to transform the property with an enormous five-story riding facility.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

As Annabelle runs Highway 12, alongside miles of ranch fencing, and the occasional cattle barn and farmhouse, she tries to envision it.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

Shallow groundwater stores supported fruit orchards, alfalfa fields, livestock ranches and, at one point, a water park and dozens of manmade lakes where people could fish, sail and water ski.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Jim Locke, 50, who ranches near Miami, Texas, has been a volunteer for 24 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

Since 1997, the United States has lost more than 450,000 cattle ranches.

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

Anaheim was a small town in those days, surrounded by ranches and farms.

From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser

This weekend, the delegation from Hidden Valley has been mobilized to the New York area—because anything can be 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

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

Mormons later farmed and ranched on the lush landscape.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2020

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

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Eleven of 13 historic ranching families would leave and be made whole for their losses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 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

The U.S. urgently needs a cattle policy worthy of its ranching tradition.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

Cheyenne, a city of 66,000 nicknamed “The Magic City of the Plains,” was built on rail, ranching, oil and gas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Congress effectively outlawed their communal property, passing vast acreages into the public domain, tracts which then suddenly wound up in the hands of large American ranching enterprises like the Devine Company.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

Related Words

• dairy farm
• estate
• homestead
• land
• plantation