strait
strait Lexical Profile
strait Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water and separating two landmasses.
"Cargo ships must navigate carefully through the narrow strait between the mainland and the island."
(usually in the plural, 'straits') A situation of severe difficulty, distress, or financial need.
"After the factory closed, many families in the town found themselves in dire financial straits."
• adjective
(archaic) Narrow, tight, or restricted in space or width.
"The ancient proverb warns that the gate to virtue is strait and the path is steep."
(archaic) Strict, rigorous, or severe in moral standards or discipline.
"The monastic order observed a strait rule of silence throughout the winter months."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse 'strait' with its homophone 'straight' (meaning without a curve or bend). In modern usage, 'strait' refers almost exclusively to a narrow waterway or, in the plural ('dire straits'), a state of severe distress, though it survives in compounds like 'straitjacket' and 'strait-laced'.
• Rhymes for strait
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English, borrowed from Old French estreit ('narrow, tight'), from Latin strictus, the past participle of stringere ('to draw tight or bind'), making it an etymological doublet of 'strict'.