es·tan·cia (ě-stän'syä) n. A large estate or cattle ranch in Spanish America.
[Spanish, room, enclosure, country estate, from Vulgar Latin *stantia, something standing, from Latin stāns, stant-, present participle of stāre, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]
in the Rio de la Plata region of Argentina and Uruguay, an extensive rural estate largely devoted to cattle ranching and to some extent to the raising of feed grain
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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