bronco

IPA/ˈbrɒŋkəʊ/
KK[brˈɑŋko]IPA/ˈbrɑːŋkəʊ/

bronco — noun

  • broncosingular
  • broncosplural

1. a horse from the western US that is still wild or only partly trained, especiall

1.nounC2
Definition

a horse from the western US that is still wild or only partly trained, especially one that is hard to ride

Example

At the rodeo, Maeve watched a bronco throw its rider into the dirt.

rodeo context: bronco throws its rider

Kian grabbed the fence as the bronco kicked dust across the yard.

Common collocations
  • ride a bronco
  • tame a bronco
  • bronco rider
  • bucking bronco
Synonyms
  • mustang

    often stresses a free-roaming North American horse rather than its rough behaviour

  • wild horse

    broader term for any horse living free, without the western rodeo sense

  • bronc

    informal short form used especially in rodeo language

Grammar Patterns

a bronco

ride a bronco

Usage Note

Often used in rodeo or ranch contexts for a horse that resists control. A bronco is not just any horse living outside; the word usually suggests rough behaviour or incomplete training.

Common Mistakes

The child learned to ride a bronco in her first lesson.
The child learned to ride a pony in her first lesson.
'bronco' suggests a hard-to-control horse, not the calm horse beginners usually ride.

Word family

  • bronc
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Bronco, mustang, stallion, and pony can all appear in stories about horses, but they point to different ideas. Bronco usually suggests a horse of the American West that is not fully trained and may fight a rider, so it often appears in rodeo or ranch contexts. Mustang focuses more on origin: it is a free-roaming horse of North America, whether calm or difficult. Stallion tells you the sex of the animal, not whether it is wild or dangerous. Pony describes a small breed or size. If a ranch hand says a bronco threw a rider, the focus is rough behaviour. If a child feeds a pony at camp, the focus is size and gentleness.

bronco ↗mustang ↗stallion ↗pony ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • bronco rider

Phrases

  • ride a bronco
  • tame a bronco
  • bucking bronco

Etymology

SpanishAmerican EnglishModern English

Borrowed from Spanish bronco, meaning 'rough' or 'coarse'. In the American West, English speakers began using it for horses that were hard to break in, especially free-ranging horses that resisted riders. The idea of roughness shifted from the horse's behaviour to the animal itself, so bronco came to mean a wild or only partly trained western horse.

First known use

1850

1850, in the meaning defined above