strait-laced
"strait-laced" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“strait-laced” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. 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) - Alternative spelling of straight-laced.
Corpus desk
Index EN-strait-laced · strait-laced · English
strait-laced · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | strait-laced |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “strait-laced” in English
Rare enough to double-check
strait-laced is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for strait-laced in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is strait-laced, spelled S-T-R-A-I-T---L-A-C-E-D.
Definition
- 1Alternative spelling of straight-laced.
- 2Bound with stays.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how strait-laced appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And if women were themselves to frame the bodies of their children in their wombs, as they 4 often endeavour to mend their shapes when they are out, we should as certainly have no perfect children born, as we have few well-shaped that are strait-laced, or much tampered with.
Juryman. My lord, I desire to know whether her stays were laced? Dell. Yes, she was laced. Mr. Cowper. If I take you right, you say she was strait-laced? Dell. Her stays were laced.
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.