Skip to main content
PlainSpell

strait

/stɹeɪt/noun

strait is spelled S-T-R-A-I-T: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “straight vs strait” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, strait means “A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of strait is straits.

How many letters and syllables are in strait?

Letters6: S-T-R-A-I-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.0 times per million words; the 12,940th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is strait?

Strait appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th 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 strait?

  • /stɹeɪt/

Strait 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-strait.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with strait

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

straight vs strait1,300 G

Sounds like: straight (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: straight.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with strait?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as strait.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: artist.

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 strait

  • straiter comparative
  • straitest superlative
  • straits plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • straiting participle, present
  • straited participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does strait mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

    the Strait of Gibraltar

  2. 2

    A narrow pass, passage or street.

  3. 3

    A neck of land; an isthmus.

  4. 4

    A difficult position.

    to be in dire straits

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicNarrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

  2. 2

    archaicRighteous, strict.

    to follow the strait and narrow

  3. 3

    obsoleteTight; close; tight-fitting.

  4. 4

    obsoleteClose; intimate; near; familiar.

  5. 5

    obsoleteDifficult; distressful.

    18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253, But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to

  6. 6

    obsoleteParsimonious; stingy; mean.

  7. 7

    obsoleteObsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo confine; put to difficulties.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo tighten.

adverb

  1. 1

    obsoleteStrictly; rigorously.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Strait in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdétroit (narrow channel of water)
GermanMeerenge, Enge, Straße (narrow channel of water)
Portugueseestreito (narrow channel of water), aperto (difficult position)
Spanishestrecho, paso (narrow channel of water), aprieto (difficult position)

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 strait come from?

From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after strait