# stretch

> English word · Verb · IPA /stɹɛt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #3,984

## Definitions
1. To lengthen by pulling.
2. To lengthen when pulled.
3. To pull tight.
4. To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body, for example in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles.
5. To extend physically, especially from a limit point and/or to a limit point.
6. To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
7. To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
8. To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.
9. To increase.
10. To increase, to grow.
11. To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
12. To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it.
13. To execute by hanging.
14. To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.

## Etymology
From Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken (“to stretch, straighten”), German strecken (“to stretch, straighten, elongate”), Danish strække (“to stretch”), Swedish sträcka (“to stretch”), Dutch strak (“taut, tight”), Albanian shtriqem (“to stretch”). More at stark.

## Easily confused with
- **stretchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stretch-vs-stretchy)
- **stretched** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stretch-vs-stretched)
- **stretches** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stretch-vs-stretches)
- **stretcher** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stretch-vs-stretcher)
- **sketch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sketch-vs-stretch)
- **stitch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stitch-vs-stretch)
- **stench** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stench-vs-stretch)
- **scratch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scratch-vs-stretch)
- **screech** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screech-vs-stretch)

## Common misspellings (12)
`srtetch`, `sstretch`, `stertch`, `strecth`, `stretcch`, `stretchh`, `strethc`, `strettch`, `strretch`, `strtech`, `sttretch`, `tsretch`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/stretch