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streak

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "streak", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "streak" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "streak" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

streak is aEnglishnoun. It means: An irregular line left from smearing or motion. Pronounced /stɹiːk/. It ranks #6,525 in English word frequency. Often confused with strep and street.

Key facts for streak
PropertyValue
Headwordstreak
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/stɹiːk/
Letters6
Frequency rank#6,525
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of streak in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for streak is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɹiːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,525 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for streak, with forms such as "srteak", "sstreak", and "sterak". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "strep", "street", "stress", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English streke, from Old English strica, from Proto-Germanic *strikiz, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“line”). Related to North Frisian strijck, Old Saxon striki, Middle Low German streke, Low German streek, Danish streg, Swedish streck, Nor… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is streak, spelled S-T-R-E-A-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    An irregular line left from smearing or motion.
  2. 2
    A continuous series of like events.
  3. 3
    A continuous series of like events.
  4. 4
    A consistent facet of somebody's personality.
  5. 5
    The color of the powder of a mineral. So called, because a simple field test for a mineral is to streak it against unglazed white porcelain.
  6. 6
    A moth of the family Geometridae, Chesias legatella.
  7. 7
    A tendency or characteristic, but not a dominant or pervasive one.
  8. 8
    A strake.
  9. 9
    A rung or round of a ladder.
  10. 10
    The act of streaking, or running naked through a public area.

Etymology

From Middle English streke, from Old English strica, from Proto-Germanic *strikiz, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“line”). Related to North Frisian strijck, Old Saxon striki, Middle Low German streke, Low German streek, Danish streg, Swedish streck, Norwegian Bokmål strek, Icelandic stryk, strykr, Dutch streek, Afrikaans streek, Old High German strih, German Strich, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌺𐍃 (striks).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: srteak,sstreak,sterak,straek,streakk,streka,strreak,sttreak,tsreak

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for streak

Misspelling Variants of "streak"

srteak6sstreak7sterak6straek6streakk7streka6strreak7sttreak7
Misspelling Variants of "streak"

Frequency rank: #6,525 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "streak"?
"streak" is spelled S-T-R-E-A-K. The IPA pronunciation is /stɹiːk/.
What does "streak" mean?
As a noun, "streak" means: An irregular line left from smearing or motion.
What words are commonly confused with "streak"?
"streak" is commonly confused with "strep", "street", "stress". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "streak"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "streak" is /stɹiːk/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "streak"?
From Middle English streke, from Old English strica, from Proto-Germanic *strikiz, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“line”). Related to North Frisian strijck, Old Saxon striki, Middle Low German streke, Low German streek, Danish streg, Swedish s... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.