farm

farm — noun

1. A piece of land with buildings on it, where someone grows crops or keeps animals

1.nounA1
Definition

A piece of land with buildings on it, where someone grows crops or keeps animals in order to sell them and earn money.

Example

Wren's family has owned a small farm in Vermont for three generations, growing organic vegetables for local markets.

possessive + farm + location; family-owned farm

After university, Rodrigo moved back to his hometown to help his parents run the family farm.

collocation: run a farm

Common collocations
  • run a farm
  • work on a farm
  • family farm
  • organic farm
  • farm animals
  • farm equipment
Synonyms
  • ranch

    a large farm for raising cattle, horses, or sheep — more common in the Americas

  • homestead

    a farmhouse and surrounding land, often with a pioneer or settlement connotation

  • smallholding

    a very small farm, usually under a few acres, often for personal use

Grammar Patterns

on a farm

farm + noun (attributive)

Usage Note

This sense is often used with the preposition 'on': 'work on a farm', 'live on a farm'. In attributive position, it combines freely with other nouns: farmhouse, farmland, farm animal, farm equipment.

Common Mistakes

She works in a farm.
She works on a farm.
the standard preposition with 'farm' for this sense is 'on', not 'in'.
I visited a farm animals place.
I visited a farm with animals.
do not stack nouns awkwardly; use a relative clause or 'farm' as an adjective.

2. A facility built for raising a specific kind of animal or fish in large numbers,

2.nounA2
Definition

A facility built for raising a specific kind of animal or fish in large numbers, either for sale as food or for the products they supply, such as eggs, milk, or leather.

Example

Emily works at a fish farm up north, where they raise salmon for supermarkets across the region.

compound: fish farm; collocation: raise salmon

The government introduced new safety rules for pig farms after the disease outbreak last spring.

compound: pig farm

Common collocations
  • fish farm
  • pig farm
  • dairy farm
  • chicken farm
  • oyster farm
  • farm-raised
Synonyms
  • ranch

    used for cattle, horses, or sheep on open land; overlaps with this sense for livestock

  • hatchery

    a facility for hatching eggs, especially fish or poultry — more industrial in tone

Grammar Patterns

[animal] + farm

farm-raised (compound adjective)

Usage Note

This sense typically appears as the second part of a compound noun naming the type of animal: pig farm, fish farm, dairy farm, chicken farm. The animal comes first, not the product — 'pig farm', not 'pork farm'.

Common Mistakes

We bought eggs from a chicken egg farm.
We bought eggs from a chicken farm.
the compound already implies the product.
They run a milk farm near the city.
They run a dairy farm near the city.
'dairy farm' is the conventional term for a farm that produces milk.

3. In baseball, a set of lower-level teams linked to a major-league club, intended

3.nounB2
Definition

In baseball, a set of lower-level teams linked to a major-league club, intended to train and develop young or inexperienced players for eventual play at the top professional level.

Example

The Blue Jays have one of the best farm systems in baseball, producing talented young pitchers every year.

collocation: farm system

Hao spent two seasons in the Yankees' farm before being called up to play in the major leagues.

Common collocations
  • farm system
  • farm team
  • farm league
  • in the [team]'s farm
Synonyms
  • minor league

    the broader organizational structure below Major League Baseball; 'farm' refers specifically to the teams affiliated with a particular major-league club

  • affiliate

    a minor-league team officially linked to a major-league club — more formal term

Grammar Patterns

farm system

farm team

in the [team]'s farm

Usage Note

Almost exclusively attributive (farm team, farm system). This meaning is specific to North American baseball and would not be understood by most English speakers outside that context without explanation.

Common Mistakes

They sent him to the farm to practice.
They sent him to their farm team to practice.
without 'team' or 'system', the sentence sounds like agricultural land.
Idioms

bet the farm

idiom

To risk everything you have on a single plan, investment, or decision, with the possibility of losing it all.

Nicholas bet the farm on his new restaurant, putting all his savings into the business before it even opened.

buy the farm

idiom

An informal and slightly humorous way of saying someone has died, especially in a sudden or violent way.

The old pilot always joked that he would buy the farm while doing a loop in his plane.

bet the farm/ranch on something

idiom

To risk everything you own on a single investment or decision.

Maya bet the farm on her new business, but it failed.

Why would you bet the ranch on such a risky stock?

buy back the farm

idiom

To regain control of a country's resources that were sold to foreigners.

The government plans to buy back the farm from foreign investors.

Can we buy back the farm before it's too late?

sell off the farm

idiom

To sell a country's assets, like land or companies, to foreign buyers.

Critics say the president is selling off the farm to foreign corporations.

The government keeps selling off the farm despite public protests.

farm — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Farm is the most general word for land used to grow crops or keep animals as a business. Ranch refers to a very large farm in dry, open country — especially in the Americas — where cattle, horses, or sheep roam freely over vast areas. A plantation is a very large estate, usually in a warm climate, historically dedicated to a single cash crop such as cotton, sugar, tobacco, or coffee, and often associated with a colonial past. Homestead suggests a smaller property centered on a farmhouse and its immediate surrounding land, carrying a sense of self-sufficient family living. For example: The Tanaka family's rice farm in California covers three hundred acres. A Texas cattle ranch may span thousands of acres. The old cotton plantations of the American South once relied on enslaved labor. The Larsons built their homestead in Montana with their own hands, starting with just a cabin and a vegetable patch.

farm ↗ranch ↗plantation ↗homestead

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • farm for a living

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word 'farm' entered English through Old French 'ferme', meaning a fixed rent or lease. This came from Medieval Latin 'firma', a noun form of the Latin 'firmare' meaning 'to make firm or settle'. In medieval times, a 'ferme' was a fixed annual payment a tenant made to a landowner — later, the meaning shifted from the payment itself to the land that generated it. The modern sense of using land for agriculture emerged around the 1600s.