# Free rein or free reign?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 16, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390 "2010-12-16T18:21:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390/21 "2010-12-17T02:36:32Z")

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Give them free reign until they hang themselves, for people in a position of power.  
Give them free rein for pets and kids in the house.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390/22 "2010-12-18T08:49:09Z")

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> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Are we actually voting on reality now?  
> It is “free rein”, and if this didn’t have a poll attached I would move it to General Questions, since it has a factual answer.

Language is one area where reality actually is determined by consensus. Prescriptivism always loses to descriptivism in the end.

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**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390/23 "2010-12-18T09:02:25Z")

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I can’t make up my mind about it – intuitively, I would have said ‘free reign’, as meaning ‘given sole authority over one’s actions’, but also reins-free, as in ‘I let the horse go reins-free’, meaning something like ‘without any external coercion’. Though googling indicates I may have made up that expression entirely, since it doesn’t seem to be used anywhere…

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390/24 "2010-12-18T09:16:55Z")

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[James Reyne](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIrUqsB-0vw)  
[David Reyne](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9dW3nTVaDc)  
[Three Reyne](http://music.aol.com/artist/elisabeth-reyne)

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**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-rein-or-free-reign/564390/25 "2010-12-18T09:26:05Z")

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I would normally write it as ‘free reign’, but that’s because my spelling sucks - I think of it as rein, my fingers just insist on inserting the g.

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