How do you pronounce reindeer?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/.

Where does reindeer come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

reindeer

/ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.32 in modern English

Syllables: rein-deer
IPA: /ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any Arctic and subarctic-dwelling deer of the species Rangifer tarandus, with a number of subspecies.

noun

Any species, subspecies, ecotype, or other scientific grouping of such animals.

verb

To herd or farm reindeer

Example Sentences

"Santa Claus' sleigh is supposedly pulled by nine reindeer"
"Here is a prodigious number of wild beaſts, as ſtags, bears, wolves, foxes of various colours, martens, hares, glittens, beavers, otters, elk, and rein deer: the latter is leſs than a stag."
"The rein-deer, which in Scandinavia can scarcely exist to the south of the sixty-fifth parallel, descends, in consequence of the greater coldness of the climate, to the fiftieth degree, in Chinese Tartary, and often roves into a country of more southern latitude than any part of England."
"Herds of wandering reindeer are frequently seen, and may even hold up the train while they cross the unfenced line to reach their feeding grounds."
"Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages."

Etymology

From Middle English reyndere, reynder, rayne-dere, from Old Norse hreindýri (“reindeer”), from hreinn (“reindeer”) + dýr (“animal”). Compare Dutch rendier (“reindeer”), German Rentier (“reindeer”), Swedish rendjur (“reindeer”), Danish rensdyr (“reindeer”) and French renne (“reindeer”). Related also to displaced Old English hrān (“reindeer”). Unrelated to rein.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: reyndere, hreindýri

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/
British English: /ˈɹeɪndɪə/

Inflected Forms

reindeers (plural) reindeers (present, singular) reindeering (participle, present) reindeered (participle, past) reindeered (past)

Derived Forms

carideer

Phrases

Arctic reindeer busk reindeer cow reindeer Finnish forest reindeer Kamchatkan reindeer mountain reindeer Novaya Zemlya reindeer reindeer calf

Synonyms

caribou greenland caribou rangifer tarandus