ravine
rav·ine/ɹəˈvin/noun
ravine is a noun meaning “A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-V-I-N-E and has 2 syllables (rav·ine), and it appears 1.4 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of ravine is ravines.
What does ravine mean?
noun
- 1
A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ravine?
- UK /ɹəˈviːn/
- US /ɹəˈvin/
Ravine has 2 syllables, split rav·ine in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ravine.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ravine
- ravines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ravine?
Ravine appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with ravine
Also written: ravin.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Ravine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a deep narrow valley:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ravine come from?
Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from ravine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rapīna (cf. rapine).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).