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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

reindeer.

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

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹeɪndɪə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹɛjndɪː/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹɛjndɪjə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/General-American

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

    plural
    Santa Claus' sleigh is supposedly pulled by nine reindeer

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

    plural
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈɹeɪndɪə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɹɛjndɪː/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹɛjndɪjə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/General-American

  1. To herd or farm reindeer

Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.