To provide a steel cord for reinforcing a tire designed to disperse a stress acting on the interface with rubber and improve adhesiveness, and to provide a pneumatic tire using the steel cord and having excellent durability.

The steel cord 1 for reinforcing the tire is obtained by covering the periphery of a steel cord body 2 formed from a single monofilament with a thermoplastic elastomer composition 3 in which an elastomer is dispersed in a thermoplastic resin. The pneumatic tire 6 is obtained by using the steel cord 1 for reinforcing the tire in a belt layer 7 and/or carcass layer 8.