Reef

How to spell reef

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce reef

What does reef mean?

1. nounA ridge of rock, sand, or coral lying at or just below the surface of the sea.
2. verbTo reduce the area of a sail by rolling or folding part of it in.

Reef in a sentence

• noun

  The divers explored a coral reef off the coast.

• verb

  The crew had to reef the mainsail as the storm built.

• noun

  The ship ran aground on a hidden reef near the harbour.

• verb

  Experienced sailors know when to reef the sails before a squall hits.

Where does reef come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Reef comes from the Old Norse word 'rif', which literally meant 'rib' and was also used for a ridge or sandbank, picked up by way of the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German 'rif' carrying the same sense. The nautical meaning, a horizontal strip of a sail that can be rolled or folded to reduce its area in strong wind, arrived in English in the 1300s and reflects the idea of a ridge or fold across the canvas. The geographical meaning, a ridge of rock, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the sea, became common a little later and shares that same notion of a low ridge. Both senses trace back to the picture of a 'rib' standing out across a surface, which is a neat way to remember the spelling. The double 'e' simply marks the long vowel, much as it does in 'beef' and 'feet', so the trap is mostly that it sounds identical to the meat 'beef' family rather than anything irregular.

How the word is built

• reef (single root noun; from Dutch/Old Norse rif meaning 'rib' or 'ridge')