reap

/ˈɹiːp/verb, noun

reap is a verb meaning “To cut (for example a grain) with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-A-P and has one syllable (reap), and it appears 3.4 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does reap mean?

verb

1
To cut (for example a grain) with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine.
2
To gather (e.g. a harvest) by cutting.
3
To obtain or receive as a reward, in a good or a bad sense.
to reap a benefit from exertions
4
To terminate a child process that has previously exited, thereby removing it from the process table.
Until a child process is reaped, it may be listed in the process table as a zombie or defunct process.
5
obsoleteTo deprive of the beard; to shave.
6
slangTo rape.

noun

1
A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce reap?

/ˈɹiːp/
[ˈɹɪi̯p]

Reap has one syllable, split reap in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-reap.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of reap

reaps present, singular, he/she/it, plural
reaping participle, present
reaped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is reap?

Reap appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form in the list.

reap0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Reap in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	faucher (to cut with a sickle or other implement)
German	ernten, schneiden, mähen, sensen, absensen (to cut with a sickle or other implement), Garbe (bundle of grain)
Portuguese	ceifar (to cut with a sickle or other implement), colher (to receive as a reward)
Spanish	segar, cosechar, socolar, socalar (to cut with a sickle or other implement), mies (bundle of grain), recoger (to receive as a reward)

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 reap come from?

From Middle English repen, from Old English rēopan, rēpan, variants of Old English rīpan (“to reap”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīpan, from Proto-Germanic *rīpaną (compare West Frisian repe, Norwegian ripa (“to score, scratch”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyb- (“to snatch”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).