noun
cattle
KA-tuhl
noun
1
Domesticated cows and bulls raised for milk, meat, or labor.
"The ranch runs about two thousand head of cattle."
2
People treated as an undifferentiated, disposable mass rather than individuals.
"The workers felt they were being treated like cattle on the factory floor."
How to Use Cattle
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishFarm animals raised for meat and dairy — cows, bulls, oxen.
Common mistake
Cattle is a plural, uncountable-style noun with no singular form of its own; you say "a cow" or "a head of cattle," never "a cattle."
Easily confused with
chattel
Common pairings
a herd of cattle
raise cattle
cattle ranch
Word Forms
cattle singular
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The ranch runs about two thousand head of _____.
Etymology
From Old Northern French catel, "personal property," ultimately from Latin capitalis ("of the head") — a doublet of both capital and chattel, since livestock counted as wealth measured by the head.