Tyre

How to spell tyre

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tyre

What does tyre mean?

1. nounA rubber covering, usually inflated with air, fitted around the rim of a wheel.

Tyre in a sentence

• The front left tyre was almost flat by the time he reached the garage.

• A sharp nail in the road can puncture a tyre within minutes.

Where does tyre come from?

Language of origin: French

The word goes back to the Middle English 'tire' or 'tyre', which is widely thought to be a shortening of 'attire', meaning to dress or equip; the underlying idea was that the metal band 'clothed' or finished the wheel. 'Attire' itself came into English from the Old French 'atirier', meaning to put in order or to equip. For centuries a tyre was the iron hoop shrunk onto a wooden cart or carriage wheel to bind the spokes together. When pneumatic rubber versions arrived in the late nineteenth century the older word simply carried over. British usage settled on the spelling 'tyre' while American (and modern Canadian) usage kept 'tire', and that split, rather than any difference in pronunciation, is exactly why the British 'y' feels so easy to slip back to 'i'.

How the word is built

• tyre (British variant of tire, from attire: to equip or dress, the band that 'clothes' the wheel)

British and American spelling

Tyre is the British spelling. American English spells it tire.