Strait

How to spell strait

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce strait

What does strait mean?

1. nounA narrow passage of water connecting two larger bodies of sea.
2. nounA position of difficulty, distress, or hardship (usually used in the plural).

Strait in a sentence

• The ferry crossed the narrow strait between the two islands.

• After losing the contract, the firm found itself in a desperate strait.

• Shipping lanes through the strait are among the busiest in the world.

• Mounting debts left the household in a dire financial strait.

Where does strait come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word came into English from the Old French estreit, meaning 'narrow' or 'tight', which descended from the Latin strictus, the past participle of stringere, 'to draw tight, bind, or compress'. The literal sense was something pulled in until little room remained, so a strait was originally any confined or narrow place. From the 1300s English used it for a narrow passage of water linking two larger seas, and as an adjective for anything cramped or restricted, as preserved in 'strait-laced' and 'the strait gate'. The same Latin stringere also gave us 'strict', 'stringent', and 'constrict', which share that idea of tightness. The spelling trap is purely the homophone 'straight', meaning without bends; 'strait' keeps the older -ait ending that signals narrowness rather than alignment.

How the word is built

• strait (from Latin strictus, 'drawn tight, narrow', via Old French estreit)

Words that sound like strait

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• straight: Extending without a bend, curve, or kink; level and even.