Reel

How to spell reel

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce reel

What does reel mean?

1. nounA rotating cylinder or spool on which line, thread, film, or tape is wound.
2. verbTo stagger, sway, or feel giddy as though about to lose balance.
3. nounA lively Scottish or Irish folk dance performed by couples in turning figures.

Reel in a sentence

• noun

  He tightened the line and tucked the rod and reel into the boot of the car.

• verb

  The blow made him reel backwards into the wall.

• noun

  The wedding guests linked arms for a fast Highland reel.

• noun

  The projectionist threaded a fresh reel of film before the screening began.

• verb

  The passengers began to reel as the ferry pitched in the swell.

• noun

  The band struck up a reel and the whole hall began to spin in pairs.

Where does reel come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English hreol, the name for a wooden device used to wind yarn or thread, and it has stayed close to that practical meaning for well over a thousand years. The root is Germanic and is thought to connect to an ancient sense of something that rotates or turns, which fits the spinning motion of a winding frame. From the original spool for thread the sense widened to cover fishing reels, then the reels that hold film or magnetic tape. The verb meaning to stagger or sway most likely grew from the dizzy, spinning sensation of a reel turning, since a person who reels seems to whirl unsteadily. The lively Scottish and Irish dance called a reel, full of turning figures, takes its name from the same idea of circling movement. The spelling trap is simply the homophone with 'real': both sound identical, yet reel keeps the double e of its Old English root.

How the word is built

• reel (from Old English hreol: a device for winding thread)

Words that sound like reel

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• real: Existing in fact and not imagined, invented, or counterfeit; genuine.