I began this post after an English learner on Facebook asked about the names of baby animals. I soon realized we have a lot of other words associated with animals, like different words for male & female animals, words for their meat, and words for the sounds they make, so I decided to write a post with as many words as I could think of for animals! It became a very long list, so I decided to focus on a specific group of animals in this post: farm animals.

Farm animals in North America are collectively called livestock (cows, horses, pigs, etc.). Poultry is the collective term for birds raised on a farm for meat and eggs (chicken, ducks, turkey, etc.).

Farm animals have been domesticated. They are animals that have been tamed and trained for work (or to live with humans). The opposite of tamed and domesticated animals is wild animals (or animals that live in the wild).

(Photo by Rick Harrison)

Cattle
(commonly known as ‘cows’)
– a male is a bull
– a male that has had its sex organs removed & is used mainly for meat is a steer
– a female is a cow
– a baby is a calf
– a group of cattle is a herd, (a herd of cattle, a herd of cows)
– meat from cattle is called beef, meat from calves is called veal
– the sound a cow makes is moo*

NOTES:
*Moo is an example of onomatopoeia, a word created to imitate a sound (in this case, a sound that an animal makes); in English there is often a verb to describe the way an animal makes a sound, and a noun to represent the sound

                                                                                         (Photo by Compassion in World Farming)

 

 

 

 

 

Chickens
– a male chicken is a rooster
– a female chicken is a hen
– a baby is a chick
– a hen lays eggs; when the chicks hatch (come out of the eggs), the hen has a brood of chicks
– a group of chickens is a flock, (a flock of chickens)
– a chicken clucks (verb) to make a sound, and the sound it makes is cluck (noun)
– meat from a chicken is … chicken

NOTES:
– chick is also a slang word for a young girl (it is sometimes considered offensive)
– a brood is also used to describe all the children in a big family

(0Photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis )

Donkeys
– a male donkey is a jack or a jackass
– a female donkey is a a jenny
– a baby donkey is a colt or a foal
– a donkey brays (verb) when it makes a sound, and the sound it makes is hee haw (in American English) or eeyore (in British English, where the ‘r’ is not pronounced)
– donkeys are kept on farms mainly for labour, not for their meat

NOTES:
– donkeys are thought to be dumb animals, so the term jackass now also means a stupid person in English (it is a very impolite & sometimes offensive word)
– Eeyore is also the name of the donkey in the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh

(Photo by Kevin Collins)

Goats
– a male goat is a buck or a billy (a billy goat)
– a female goat is a nanny (a nanny goat)
– a baby goat is a kid (yes, the same word for a young human!)
– a goat bleats (verb), but there is no word for the sound it makes
– meat from a goat is called … goat meat

(Photo by Milos Milosevic)

Horses
– a male horse is a stallion; if the horse is used to breed (to produce more horses), it is called a stud
– a female horse is a mare
– a baby horse is a foal (male – colt, female – filly)
– the sound horse makes is neigh; a horse also whinnies (makes a high sound)
– horse meat is not eaten in North America

NOTES:
– a pony is a small horse (it could mean a child horse, or it could mean a breed of horses that is smaller than others)
– stud is also a word used jokingly to describe a young, attractive man who has no problem finding women to have sex with; an even funnier term is stud muffin
– the word horse is used in a lot of idioms in English; here’s one of them:

Wild horses couldn’t drag it out of me! = I will not tell you my secret [‘it‘ = secret information]!

(Photo by Woodley Wonder Works)

Pigs
– a male pig is a boar
– a female pig is a sow
– a baby pig is a piglet; a female pig gives birth to a litter of piglets
– the sound a pig makes is oink
– pig meat is called pork

NOTES:
– pigs can’t fly, but a common expression in English is when pigs fly, meaning something will never happen!

He says he’ll get a Mac when pigs fly!

It can also be used to answer a question:

“Do you think you’ll get into Harvard?”
“When pigs fly!”

(Photo by Keven Law)

Sheep
*The singular & plural forms of sheep are the same: 1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep etc.
– a male sheep is a buck or ram
– a female sheep is a ewe
– a baby sheep is a lamb
– a group of sheep is a flock (a flock of sheep)
– when a sheep bleats (verb), the sound it makes is baa
– the meat from an adult sheep is called mutton; the meat from a lamb is … lamb

NOTES:
– in North American pop culture, counting sheep has become a common reference for sleep or insomnia (the inability to sleep); people who can’t sleep are told to imagine sheep jumping over a fence and then count them – a task so boring that it is supposed to put the person back to sleep!
– it doesn’t work, but in pop culture sheep have become a symbol for sleep!

(Photo by Amancay Maahs)

Turkey
– a male turkey is a tom
– a female turkey is a hen
– a baby turkey is a poult
– the sound a turkey makes is gobble
– meat from a turkey is … turkey

NOTES:
– a turkey is also a play or film that is failure or a flop, and it is also a silly, stupid, foolish person
– if you quit something cold turkey (like smoking), you just stop doing it, suddenly and completely, with no help
– here’s a Wikipedia article with a list of names for Turkey in different languages