ranch
Americannoun
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an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions.
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Chiefly Western U.S. and Canada. a large farm used primarily to raise one kind of crop or animal.
a mink ranch.
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a dude ranch.
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the persons employed or living on a ranch.
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I’ll have the small salad, with ranch on the side.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a large tract of land, esp one in North America, together with the necessary personnel, buildings, and equipment, for rearing livestock, esp cattle
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any large farm for the rearing of a particular kind of livestock or crop
a mink ranch
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the buildings, land, etc, connected with it
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verb
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(intr) to manage or run a ranch
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(tr) to raise (animals) on or as if on a ranch
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has ranchedperfect 3rd person singular
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have ranchedperfect
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am ranchingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been ranchingperfect progressive
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has been ranchingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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are ranchingprogressive
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is ranchingprogressive 3rd person singular
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ranchessingular 3rd person
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ranchingparticiple
Past
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had ranchedperfect
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were ranchingprogressive plural
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was ranchingprogressive singular
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ranchedsimple
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had been ranchingperfect progressive
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ranchedparticiple
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
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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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.
Duflock owns San Bernardo Rancho, a fifth-generation family ranch in south Monterey County.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 15, 2026
On Duflock’s ranch and many other California farms, there’s little to no charging infrastructure, he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 15, 2026
"I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone," he said.
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
When I was 6, we moved into a three-bedroom, pale-green stucco ranch that my dad had built and landscaped in Riverside.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Next up, a song called “Road to Nowhere,” which is quite fitting, given what surrounds her—miles and miles of ranch fencing, and then brown and green and yellow hills marked with green scrub.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
