straight man
/ˈstɹeɪtˌmæn/
"straight-man" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“straight man” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentr...
Corpus desk
Index EN-straight-man · straight man · English
straight man · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | straight man |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈstɹeɪtˌmæn/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “straight man” in English
Rare enough to double-check
straight man is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈstɹeɪtˌmæn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for straight man in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is straight man, spelled S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T- -M-A-N.
Definition
- 1A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see straight, man; for example, a heterosexual man.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how straight man appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.
Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.