strain
/stɹeɪn/noun, verb
strain is spelled S-T-R-A-I-N: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, strain means “A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of strain is strains.
How many letters and syllables are in strain?
| Letters | 6: S-T-R-A-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,595th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is strain?
Strain appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce strain?
- /stɹeɪn/
Strain has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-strain.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-strain.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with strain?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as strain.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: instar.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of strain
- strains plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- straining participle, present
- strained participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does strain mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
archaicRace; lineage, pedigree.
- 2
A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
They say this year's flu virus is a particularly virulent strain.
- 3
Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.
There is a strain of madness in her family.
- 4
Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.
A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history.
- 5
Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
- 6
rareA kind or sort (of person etc.).
- 7
obsoleteTreasure.
- 8
obsoleteThe blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.
- 9
The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
If the Menai Bridge, for instance, were loaded at that rate, the entire strain on the main chains would be about 2000 tons ; while the chains containing 260 square inches of iron would bear, at 9 tons per square inch, 2340 tons, without str
- 10
A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.
he jumped up with a strain
- 11
An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
- 12
A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain.
- 13
obsoleteThe track of a deer.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo hold tightly, to clasp.
- 2
To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.
to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship
- 3
To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.
The gale strained the timbers of the ship.
- 4
To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
- 5
To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.
Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.
- 6
To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.
to strain the law in order to convict an accused person
- 7
To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander.
- 8
To percolate; to be filtered.
water straining through a sandy soil
- 9
obsoleteTo beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world.
A man straineth, liveth, then dieth.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate strain?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of strain: str.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Strain in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | race, variété , souche , hérédité , étirer , tension |
| German | Sorte, Rasse, Abstammung, Stamm, Geschlecht , beanspruchen |
| Portuguese | linhagem , cepa, estirpe , feição , distender , coar |
| Spanish | cepa, raza, linaje , variedad , trazas , esforzar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does strain come from?
From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-West Germanic *streun, from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).