cattle

plural noun

cat·​tle ˈka-tᵊl 

1

: domesticated quadrupeds held as property or raised for use

specifically : bovine animals on a farm or ranch

2

: human beings especially en masse

Examples of cattle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Both enslaved and free Black people were central to the cattle industry that was a crucial part of the economy during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. —TIME, 12 Apr. 2024

So far, there's some reassuring news: At a recent meeting, scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the virus is not presenting like a respiratory illness in cattle – meaning the animals don't appear to be shedding large amounts of virus from their nose or mouths. —Will Stone, NPR, 11 Apr. 2024

The dairy worker had caught the virus, apparently, from cattle. —David Cox, WIRED, 11 Apr. 2024

Nearly 200 years later, the descendants of those exiles described a land where horses and cattle roamed across solid earth and their grandfathers slung freshwater bass and catfish out of Lake Tambour. —Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 11 Apr. 2024

The infected individual out of Texas worked directly with sick cattle and reported eye redness as their only symptom, according to the CDC. —Youri Benadjaoud, ABC News, 1 Apr. 2024

Milk from sick cattle is being diverted or destroyed. —Andrew Jeong, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2024

The site was occupied from the 10th to 12th centuries and likely abandoned when an epidemic hit its cattle, archaeologists said. —Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 22 Mar. 2024

The 2- to 3-year-old cattle were sacrificed as a religious offering. —Andrea Vacchiano, Fox News, 20 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English catel, cadel "property (whether real or personal), goods, treasure, livestock, (in plural cateles) possessions," borrowed from Anglo-French katil "property, goods, wealth," borrowed from medieval French (dialects of Picardy and French Flanders) catel, going back to Medieval Latin capitāle "movable property, riches," (in Anglo-Saxon law texts) "head of cattle," noun derivative from neuter of capitālis "of the head, chief, principal" — more at capital entry 1

Note: Note that the spelling cattle is uncommon before the eighteenth century. Anglo-French katil is a variant of chatel—see chattel, which is a doublet of this word. Though the variant with [k] is rare in Anglo-French, catel is frequent and used almost interchangeably with chatel in Middle English. The sense "livestock," however, is only attached to catel, to judge from citations in the Middle English Dictionary. — Regarding the meaning "movable property, riches" of capitālis see the note at capital entry 2.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing cattle

• Australian cattle dog
• beef cattle
• cattle guard
• cattle tick
• cattle call
• cattle grub
• cattle egret
• dairy cattle
• cattle grid
• common cattle grub
• cattle prod
• short-nosed cattle louse

Kids Definition

cattle

noun

cat·​tle ˈkat-ᵊl 

plural cattle

: domestic four-footed animals held as property or raised for use

especially : bovine animals (as cows, bulls, or steers) kept on a farm or ranch