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

Dell mimed the physical act of branding cattle to indicate the importance of loyalty. —Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025

Selling hundreds of his family’s lush-green acres to a Texas developer is the right move for the area’s economic future, longtime Iredell County cattle farmer David Stamey said Thursday. —Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 22 Aug. 2025

Laying claim to more than 800 acres teeming with apple orchards, gardens both botanical and medieval, 500 British white cattle, 400 sheep, about 80 red deer and an armada of great crested newts — the Newt has more than a few. —Jennifer Leigh Parker, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025

Centuries after the massive ancestor of modern-day cattle went extinct, a new breed is being released in Denmark to rewild the terrain. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 20 Aug. 2025

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

Rhymes for cattle

• battel
• battle
• brattle
• chattel
• prattle
• rattle
• tattle
• striatal

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