Rhino

How to spell rhino

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rhino

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rhino mean?

1. nounA large, thick-skinned African or Asian mammal with one or two horns on its snout; an informal name for a rhinoceros.

Rhino in a sentence

• The safari guide spotted a rhino grazing near the waterhole.

• Poaching has pushed the black rhino close to extinction.

Where does rhino come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Rhino is a shortened, informal form of rhinoceros, which English took in the 1500s straight from the Latinised Greek rhinokeros. That word combined the Greek rhino-, a combining form of rhis meaning 'nose', with keras meaning 'horn', so the full name literally describes a 'nose-horn', a neat summary of the animal's most striking feature. The clipped form rhino became common in the nineteenth century as the longer word fell into casual conversation among hunters, naturalists, and zoo visitors. The silent 'h' after the 'r' is the lasting fingerprint of the Greek breathing on rhis, and it is the same rho-plus-rough-breathing pattern seen in words such as rhythm, rhetoric, and rhinitis. Curiously, rhino was also old British slang for ready cash from the late 1600s, though that sense has largely faded. Whenever the spelling tempts you to drop the 'h', remember the Greek 'nose' root that also gives us rhinoceros itself.

How the word is built

• rhino- (nose)
• clipped from rhinoceros (-ceros: horn)