Rhine

See also: rhine

English

Etymology

From Middle English Rine, Ryne, from Old English Rīn (“the Rhine”), from Middle High German and Old High German Rīn, from Proto-West Germanic *Rīn, from Proto-Germanic *Rīnaz, from Gaulish Rēnos, from a Pre-Celtic or Proto-Celtic *reinos; one of a class of river names built from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- (“to move, flow, run”).

Cognate with Old High German Rīn ("the Rhine"; > German Rhein), Old Norse Rín (“the Rhine”), Dutch Rijn (“the Rhine”). Related also to Latin rivus ("river"), in Celtic with an -n- suffix as in Old Irish rīan (“run”) (more at run).

The spelling with Rh- is due to the influence of Ancient Greek Ῥῆνος (Rhênos) (via French Rhin).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹaɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

Proper noun

the Rhine

2. A major river in western Europe, which flows through Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, France and the Netherlands, before emptying into the North Sea.
   • 2025 June 4, Alex Croft, “Around 20,000 evacuated in Cologne as major bomb defusal operation underway”, in The Independent‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 July 2025, retrieved 20 February 2026:

     Roads on either side of the river Rhine will be closed as authorities seal off the large evacuation zone. The Unesco World Heritage Cologne Cathedral sits just outside the area.

Derived terms

• North Rhine
• Rhenian
• Rhenish
• Rhine Falls
• Rhine gold
• Rhineland
• rhinestone
• Rhinish

Translations

river that flows through Europe

• Afrikaans: Ryn
• Albanian: Rhein
• Alsatian Alemannic German: Rhy (Mulhouse), Rhin (North)
• Arabic: نَهْر اَلرَّايْن m (nahr ar-rayn)
• Armenian: Հռենոս (Hṙenos)
• Azerbaijani: Reyn (az)
• Basque: Rhin
• Belarusian: Рэйн m (Rejn)
• Bulgarian: Рейн m (Rejn)
• Catalan: Rin (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 萊茵河 / 莱茵河 (zh) (Láiyīn hé)

• Czech: Rýn (cs) m
• Danish: Rhinen (da)
• Dutch: Rijn (nl) m
• Esperanto: Rejno
• Estonian: Rein
• Faroese: Rín f
• Finnish: Rein (fi)
• French: Rhin (fr) m

  Old French: Rin m

• Galician: Rin m
• Georgian: რაინი (raini)
• German: Rhein (de) m

  Bavarian: Rhein

  Central Franconian: Rhing m

  Rhine Franconian: Rhoi (Palatine)

  Swabian: Rei

• Greek: Ρήνος (el) m (Rínos)

  Ancient Greek: Ῥῆνος m (Rhênos)

• Hebrew: ריין
• Hindi: राइन (rāin)
• Hungarian: Rajna (hu)
• Icelandic: Rín (is) f
• Indonesian: Rhein
• Irish: Réin f
• Italian: Reno (it) m
• Japanese: ライン川 (Rain-gawa)
• Kazakh: Рейн (Rein)
• Korean: 라인 강 (Rain gang)
• Kyrgyz: Рейн (Reyn)
• Lao: ໄຣນ໌ (rain), ແມ່ນ້ຳໄຣນ໌ (mǣ nam rain)
• Latin: Rhēnus (la)
• Latvian: Reina f
• Limburgish: Rien (li)
• Lithuanian: Reinas m
• Luxembourgish: Rhäin (lb) m
• Macedonian: Ра́јна f (Rájna)
• Malay: Rhine
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Rhinen

  Nynorsk: Rhinen

• Occitan: Ren m
• Old English: Rīn m or f
• Old Norse: Rín f
• Persian: راین (fa) (râyn)
• Polish: Ren (pl) m
• Portuguese: Reno m
• Romanian: Rin (ro) m
• Romansh: Rain m, Rein m
• Russian: Рейн (ru) m (Rejn)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Рајна f

  Latin: Rajna (sh) f

• Slovak: Rýn
• Slovene: Ren (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: Ryn m

  Upper Sorbian: Ryn m

• Spanish: Rin m
• Swedish: Rhen (sv)
• Tajik: Рейн (Reyn)
• Thai: ไรน์ (rái), แม่น้ำไรน์
• Turkish: Ren (tr)
• Turkmen: Reýn
• Ukrainian: Рейн m (Rejn)
• Uzbek: Reyn
• Welsh: Rhein
• Yiddish: ריין m (reyn)

Anagrams

• Hiner, Hiren, rhein