barn

The word “barn” means a large farm building used to store crops, equipment, or house animals. In plain terms, a farm building for storing grain, hay, or equipment, or for housing livestock.

“Barn” is pronounced BAHN ([ˈbɑɹn] in IPA).

Here is “barn” used in a sentence: “They kept the hay bales stacked high in the barn all winter.”

“Barn” is a noun.

The word “barn” comes from Old English. From Old English berern, a compound of "bere" (barley) and "ærn" (a building) — literally a "barley house.".

“Barn” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Barn” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a large farm building used to store crops, equipment, or house animals.

A barn is a large farm building with many possible uses — storing crops and equipment or housing animals — while a stable is specifically a building where horses are kept. Every stable houses animals; a barn might contain only hay and machinery.

Size and purpose. A barn is a large farm building for crops, equipment, or livestock, while a shed is typically a smaller, simpler structure for storage or shelter, such as a garden shed or tool shed.

In nuclear and particle physics, a barn is a unit of area used to measure the cross-section of atomic nuclei — effectively how large a target a nucleus presents in a collision. One barn equals 10⁻²⁸ square metres.