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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cattle.

Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc), and other hoofed mammals of the genus Bos.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkætəl/[ˈkʰætʰəl] ~ [ˈkʰætʰl̩]/ˈkæɾəl/[ˈkʰæɾəl] ~ [ˈkʰæɾl̩]

  1. Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc), and other hoofed mammals of the genus Bos.

    plural · plural-normally
    Many cattle were suffering from a disease called BSE.

  2. Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or goats. Also rarely applied to horses.

    plural · plural-normally

  3. People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.

    derogatory · figuratively · plural · plural-normally

  4. chattel

    English · countable · obsolete · plural · plural-normally · sometimes

  5. Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle.

    plural · plural-normally · rare · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English catel, from Anglo-Norman catel (“personal property”), from Old Northern French (compare French cheptel, Old French chetel, chatel, also English chattel) from Medieval Latin capitāle, from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee. Also compare Russian поголо́вье (pogolóvʹje, “total number of livestock”) from Russian голова́ (golová, “head”). Doublet of capital and chattel.

verb/ˈkætəl/[ˈkʰætʰəl] ~ [ˈkʰætʰl̩]/ˈkæɾəl/[ˈkʰæɾəl] ~ [ˈkʰæɾl̩]

  1. Ellipsis of cattle truck (“to fuck: to break, destroy”).

    Cockney · abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English catel, from Anglo-Norman catel (“personal property”), from Old Northern French (compare French cheptel, Old French chetel, chatel, also English chattel) from Medieval Latin capitāle, from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee. Also compare Russian поголо́вье (pogolóvʹje, “total number of livestock”) from Russian голова́ (golová, “head”). Doublet of capital and chattel.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.