Terrain

How to spell terrain

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce terrain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does terrain mean?

1. nounA stretch of land considered with regard to its physical features and how easily it can be crossed.

Terrain in a sentence

• The rocky terrain slowed the hikers to a crawl.

• A four-wheel drive copes with rough terrain far better than a saloon.

Where does terrain come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin terra, meaning 'earth' or 'land', the same root that gives us 'territory', 'terrace' and 'subterranean'. From terra came the Vulgar Latin terranum, a stretch of ground, which passed into French as terrain with the sense of a piece of land considered for its physical features. English borrowed it from French in the early 1700s, at first as a technical term in geology and military planning for ground viewed as something to be crossed, fought over or surveyed. The spelling kept its French shape, which is exactly where the trap lies: the unexpected -ain ending and the doubled r both come straight from the French and Latin forms. Today it covers any tract of ground considered in terms of its surface and obstacles, whether literal or figurative.

How the word is built

• terr- (from Latin terra: earth, land)
• -ain (noun suffix from Old French)