Ridder

name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    a sieve dialectal
  2. 2
    One who, or that which, rids.
Verb
  1. 1
    to sieve; sift; riddle transitive
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English ridder, rydder, from Old English hridder (“sieve”) (also as Old English hriddel > English riddle (“sieve”)), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīdrā, from Proto-Germanic *hrīdrą, *hrīdrǭ (“sieve”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to divide; part; separate; sift”). Cognate with German Reiter (“sieve”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English riddren, from Old English hridrian, from Proto-Germanic *hrīdrōną (“to sieve; sift”), from the noun. See above.

Etymology 3

From rid + -er.

Etymology 4

From the German and Dutch surname, spelling variant of Ritter.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.