deer

UK/dɪə//dɪɹ/

deer noun: a ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

deer (countable and uncountable, plural deer or (dated or nonstandard; occasionally used in the sense of more than one species) deers)

(countable) A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.
- Deer sperm was in used among the Romans as an aphrodisiac.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 227
- Musk Deer (Moschus moschiferus)
- The musk deer is unique in several ways, reflecting its taxonomic separation from other deer (Flerov, 1952). For example , they are the only deer to possess a gall bladder[…]2012 December 2, Richard J. Goss, Deer Antlers: Regeneration, Function and Evolution, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 25
1. (countable) Such a mammal that is in the family Cervidae.
  - Nara and its deer are so closely associated that the light-brown colored animals are pictured in the city’s tourism ads, on buses, train tickets and more.2024 July 23, Lilit Marcus, “Japan may be sick of mass tourism. But the deer in this ancient UNESCO-listed city love it”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2024
2. (countable) One of the smaller animals of the family Cervidae, distinguished from a moose or elk.
  - I wrecked my car after a deer ran across the road.
  - Sure, most of us hunt deer around here, but not many of us have ever hunted moose.
(uncountable) The meat of such an animal, obtained through the process of hunting or from specialized deer farms; venison.
- I'd never had deer before I ate dinner with the Johanssens. In time I learned to like it; its gaminess is an acquired taste.
(countable, otherwise obsolete or archaic) Any animal, especially a quadrupedal mammal as opposed to a bird, fish, etc.
- But mice and rats and such small deer, have been Tom's food for seven long year.1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act III, scene IV

Proper noun capitalized: Deer

Deer

Villages in Aberdeenshire, Scotland: See New Deer and Old Deer.
A township in Roseau County, Minnesota, United States.
An unincorporated community in Osage County, Missouri, United States.

deer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

deer in Hindi

animal of the family Cervidae: हिरन hiran, हरिण hariṇ, मृग mŕg

deer in Tamil

animal of the family Cervidae: மான் māṉ

deer in Marathi

animal of the family Cervidae: हरीण harīṇ, हरण haraṇ

deer in Urdu

animal of the family Cervidae: ہرن hiran

More languagesFewer languages

deer in Bengali: হরিণ horin
deer in Telugu: జింక jiṅka
deer in Malayalam: മാൻ māṉ
deer in Kannada: ಜಿಂಕೆ jiṅke
deer in Punjabi: ਹਿਰਨ hiran, ਆਹੂ āhū
deer in Gujarati: હરણ haraṇ
deer in Odia: ହରିଣ hariṇa
deer in Sanskrit: मृग mṛga, हरिण hariṇa
deer in Assamese: হৰিণা horina, হৰিণাপহু horinapohu, হৰিণ horin
deer in Nepali: हिरन, मृग, हिरण
deer in Pashto: سګه sagá
deer in Tagalog: usa
deer in Arabic: أَيِّل ʔayyil
deer in Malay: rusa, menjangan, payau, cewe angin
deer in Indonesian: kijang, rusa, menjangan
deer in Persian: گوزن gavazn, گاوکوهی gâvkuhi, آهو âhu
deer in Thai: กวาง gwaang
deer in Vietnamese: hươu, nai
deer in Myanmar: သမင် sa.mang

Examples of deer in a sentence

The third and smallest deer on Java and Bali is the mouse deer Tragulus javanicus.2013 February 5, Anthony J. Whitten, Roehayat Emon Soeriaatmadja, Ecology of Java & Bali, Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN:
In the space beyond that, Rose saw a deer, with abbreviated velvet antlers and a cautious yet somehow also bored mien, considering her through dark, strangely human eyes.2020, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, Bloomsbury (2023), page 76:

All 40 example sentences with deer

Synonyms of deer

Forms of deer

plural	deer
plural error-unknown-tag (nonstandard, dated)	deers

Plural of deer: deer

Origin of deer

From Middle English der, deer (“animal, deer”), from Old English dēor (“animal”), from Proto-West Germanic *deuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *deuzą, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewsóm (“living thing”), from *dʰéws (“breath”), full-grade derivative of *dʰwes-. Cognate with Scots deer (“deer”), North Frisian dier (“animal, beast”), West Frisian dier (“animal, beast”), Dutch dier (“animal, beast”), German Low German Deer, Deert (“animal”), German Tier (“animal, beast”), Swedish djur (“animal, beast”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk dyr (“animal, beast”), Icelandic dýr (“animal, beast”). Related also to Albanian dash (“ram”) (possibly), Lithuanian daũsos (“upper air; heaven”), Lithuanian dùsti (“to sigh”), Russian душа́ (dušá, “breath, spirit”), Lithuanian dvė̃sti (“to breathe, exhale”), Sanskrit ध्वंसति (dhvaṃsati, “he falls to dust”). For the semantic development compare Latin animālis (“animal”), from anima (“breath, spirit”).

Probably from Pictish *deru (“oak”), from Proto-Brythonic *dar.

Words formed from deer

Phrases with deer

55 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with deer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deer

What does deer mean?: Deer means a ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer.
What is deer in Hindi?: Deer in Hindi is हिरन (hiran), हरिण (hariṇ), मृग (mŕg). See Deer meaning in Hindi.
How do you use deer in a sentence?: The third and smallest deer on Java and Bali is the mouse deer Tragulus javanicus.
What part of speech is deer?: Deer can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce deer?: Deer is pronounced /dɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of deer?: The plural of deer is deer.

Words near deer in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: deer (page history and authors); Deer (page history and authors); ਆਹੂ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); હરણ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ହରିଣ (Odia) (page history and authors); deer (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deer.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.