The biggest of the Canary Islands — a group of Spanish islands sitting in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa. Look at a map and you will see how odd this is: the islands are much closer to Morocco than to Spain, but they belong to Spain, and people there speak Spanish. In the middle of Tenerife stands a volcano, Teide, which is the highest point in all of Spain. The reason British people say this name so often is holidays. It is warm there all year, even in December and January when Britain is cold and dark, so cheap flights fill up with British, German and Scandinavian tourists. That has given the word a second flavour in British English: when someone says "we're going to Tenerife," other British people hear not just a place but a type of holiday — sun, beach, hotel, cheap. Some British speakers say it a little as a joke for that reason, the way people here might joke about going to 墾丁. Say it in four beats, ten-uh-REEF. The last part sounds like the English word "reef," which is a happy accident, not the meaning.