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reeve

/ɹiːv/noun, verb

reeve is a noun meaning “Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-E-V-E and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of reeve is reeves.

What does reeve mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.

  2. 2

    CanadaThe president of a township or municipal district council.

  3. 3

    The holder of a proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force, equivalent to wing commander.

  4. 4

    A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.

verb

  1. 1

    To pass (a rope) through a hole or opening, especially so as to fasten it.

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

How do you pronounce reeve?

  • /ɹiːv/

Reeve has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-reeve.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of reeve

  • reeves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • reeving participle, present
  • reeved participle, past
  • rove participle, past

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

How common is reeve?

Reeve appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd 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 reeve

Sounds like: reave (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Reeve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense Translations:

LanguageWords
GermanGraf

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 reeve come from?

From Middle English reve, from Old English rēfa, an aphetism of ġerēfa (also grœ̄fa), from Proto-West Germanic *garāfijō (“officer, official”). Compare Danish greve, Swedish greve, Dutch graaf, German Graf. The role, and eventually the word, was mostly replaced by bailiff, of Anglo-Norman origin.

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