Reindeer

How to spell reindeer

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reindeer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reindeer mean?

1. nounA large deer with broad antlers native to cold northern regions, often kept or herded for meat, milk, and transport.

Reindeer in a sentence

• The herders in Lapland depend on each reindeer for meat and hides.

• A single reindeer can pull a loaded sled across packed snow.

Where does reindeer come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word comes from the Old Norse hreindyri, a compound of hreinn, meaning 'reindeer', and dyr, meaning 'animal' or 'beast'. The second element is a close cousin of the Old English word deor, which originally meant any wild animal before narrowing in modern English to the specific antlered creature we now call a deer. Norse-speaking settlers and traders brought the term into English in the late fourteenth century, since the animal itself lived in the cold northern lands they knew well. The spelling trap sits in that first syllable: it is 'rein' (the same letters as the strap used to steer a horse) and not 'rain' or 'reign', even though the word has nothing to do with either. Remembering that the front half comes from hreinn, with its 'ei', helps lock the spelling in place.

How the word is built

• rein- (from Old Norse hreinn: reindeer)
• deer (animal, from Old English deor)