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.

---

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

---

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

So she and her family decamped to a ranch in Montana, where they lived in a log cabin and rode horses while riding out the global pandemic.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

After the Palisades fire, the ranch began hosting weekly community potluck dinners for anyone who lost their home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

The ranch is nestled in a corner of Nebraska that's home to rolling green hills under sweeping Midwestern skies, the landscape dotted with grain silos and feedlots alongside fields and fields of bovines.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

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

A fat sleek ranch cat walked across the road carrying a rat so large that its tail dragged on the ground.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

The art of making papel picado was born on ranches outside Huixcolotla.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

Today, about 80% of America’s roughly quarter-million bison live on private ranches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

This strange realm of pointy peaks, rocky caves and soaring condors is California’s youngest and smallest national park, set in the underappreciated middle of California, where farms, ranches and vineyards blanket the valleys and hills.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

Dubbed PRONAPABA, its Portuguese acronym, the Smithsonian-sponsored program was conducting the first-ever full archaeological survey of Amazonia, which was being logged for cattle ranches at a speed that was beginning to cause protests.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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

“It’s pushing many people completely out of ranching, and many people have had to significantly reduce their herd sizes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

That was the number of ranching families whose property was on the path needed for “Running Fence.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

“Yak ranching is growing, but it’s still a niche market,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 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

“In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months.”

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• dairy farm
• estate
• homestead
• land
• plantation

---