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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

street.

A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/stɹiːt/Received-Pronunciation[ʃt͡ʃɹiːt]/stɹit/US[skɹitˀ]
  1. A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.

    Walk down the street until you see a hotel on the right.
    The man wearing a red coat is standing on the street.
  2. A road as above, but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.

    I live on the street down from Joyce Avenue.
    I've been shopping in Oxford Street.
  3. The roads that run perpendicular to avenues in a grid layout.

    Canada · US · specifically
  4. Metonymic senses: The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.

  5. Metonymic senses: The people who spend a great deal of time on the street in urban areas, especially, the young, the poor, the unemployed, and those engaged in illegal activities.

  6. Metonymic senses: An illicit or contraband source, especially of drugs.

    I got some pot cheap on the street.
    The seized drugs had a street value of $5 million.
  7. Metonymic senses: Ellipsis of Wall Street.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis
    Orders were reported to have increased 2% monthly, ahead of the 1.2% expected by the street.
    Professional services and other revenue made up $577 million, edging out street estimates for $541.4 million.
  8. Living in the streets.

    attributive
    a street cat
    a street urchin
  9. Streetwise slang.

    slang · uncountable
  10. People in general, as a source of information.

    in-plural · slang
    Streets say something's happening tomorrow.
  11. A great distance.

    figuratively
    He's streets ahead of his sister in all the subjects in school.
  12. Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river.

    slang
  13. A style of skateboarding featuring typically urban obstacles.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ster- Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *str̥h₃tós Proto-Italic *strātos Latin strātus Latin via strātaellip. Late Latin strātabor. Proto-West Germanic *strātu Anglian Old English strēt Middle English strete English street Inherited from Middle English strete, from Anglian Old English strēt (“street”, compare West Saxon Old English strǣt) from Proto-West Germanic *strātu (“street”), an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta (“paved (road)”), from Latin strātus, past participle of sternō (“stretch out, spread, bestrew with, cover, pave”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to stretch out, extend, spread”). Doublet of estrade and stratum. The /aː/ vowel of the Latin form shifted by Anglo-Frisian brightening to /æː/ in West Saxon and /eː/ in Anglian Old English; these developed respectively to /ɛː/ and /eː/ in Middle English, /ɛː/ and /iː/ in Early Modern English, and finally /iː/ in Modern English by the Great Vowel Shift. The modern spelling reflects the Anglian form, as in sleep, greedy, sheep. Cognates Cognate with Scots stret, strete, streit (“street”), North Frisian Straat, stroot, struat (“street”) (North Frisian forms are borrowed from Middle Low German strâte), Saterland Frisian Sträite (“street”), West Frisian strjitte (“street”), Bavarian Stråßn (“street”), Dutch straat (“street”) (see doublet straat), German Strasse, Straße (“street”), German Low German Straat, Straote (“street”), Limburgish sjtraot, straot (“street”), Luxembourgish Strooss (“street”), Mòcheno stros (“street”), Vilamovian śtrös, štrȫs (“street”), Yiddish שטראָז (shtroz, “street”), Danish stræde (“alley, lane, narrow street”), Faroese and Icelandic stræti (“street”), Norwegian Bokmål strede (“narrow street”), Swedish stråt (“path, road, route; way, course”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese and Spanish estrada (“road”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”), Latin sternō, Ancient Greek στορνύναι (stornúnai). More at strew.

adj/stɹiːt/Received-Pronunciation[ʃt͡ʃɹiːt]/stɹit/US[skɹitˀ]
  1. Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends.

    slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ster- Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *str̥h₃tós Proto-Italic *strātos Latin strātus Latin via strātaellip. Late Latin strātabor. Proto-West Germanic *strātu Anglian Old English strēt Middle English strete English street Inherited from Middle English strete, from Anglian Old English strēt (“street”, compare West Saxon Old English strǣt) from Proto-West Germanic *strātu (“street”), an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta (“paved (road)”), from Latin strātus, past participle of sternō (“stretch out, spread, bestrew with, cover, pave”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to stretch out, extend, spread”). Doublet of estrade and stratum. The /aː/ vowel of the Latin form shifted by Anglo-Frisian brightening to /æː/ in West Saxon and /eː/ in Anglian Old English; these developed respectively to /ɛː/ and /eː/ in Middle English, /ɛː/ and /iː/ in Early Modern English, and finally /iː/ in Modern English by the Great Vowel Shift. The modern spelling reflects the Anglian form, as in sleep, greedy, sheep. Cognates Cognate with Scots stret, strete, streit (“street”), North Frisian Straat, stroot, struat (“street”) (North Frisian forms are borrowed from Middle Low German strâte), Saterland Frisian Sträite (“street”), West Frisian strjitte (“street”), Bavarian Stråßn (“street”), Dutch straat (“street”) (see doublet straat), German Strasse, Straße (“street”), German Low German Straat, Straote (“street”), Limburgish sjtraot, straot (“street”), Luxembourgish Strooss (“street”), Mòcheno stros (“street”), Vilamovian śtrös, štrȫs (“street”), Yiddish שטראָז (shtroz, “street”), Danish stræde (“alley, lane, narrow street”), Faroese and Icelandic stræti (“street”), Norwegian Bokmål strede (“narrow street”), Swedish stråt (“path, road, route; way, course”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese and Spanish estrada (“road”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”), Latin sternō, Ancient Greek στορνύναι (stornúnai). More at strew.

verb/stɹiːt/Received-Pronunciation[ʃt͡ʃɹiːt]/stɹit/US[skɹitˀ]
  1. To build or equip with streets.

  2. To eject; to throw onto the streets.

  3. To heavily defeat.

    broadly
  4. To go on sale.

  5. To proselytize in public.

    Japanese · Mormonism
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ster- Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *str̥h₃tós Proto-Italic *strātos Latin strātus Latin via strātaellip. Late Latin strātabor. Proto-West Germanic *strātu Anglian Old English strēt Middle English strete English street Inherited from Middle English strete, from Anglian Old English strēt (“street”, compare West Saxon Old English strǣt) from Proto-West Germanic *strātu (“street”), an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta (“paved (road)”), from Latin strātus, past participle of sternō (“stretch out, spread, bestrew with, cover, pave”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to stretch out, extend, spread”). Doublet of estrade and stratum. The /aː/ vowel of the Latin form shifted by Anglo-Frisian brightening to /æː/ in West Saxon and /eː/ in Anglian Old English; these developed respectively to /ɛː/ and /eː/ in Middle English, /ɛː/ and /iː/ in Early Modern English, and finally /iː/ in Modern English by the Great Vowel Shift. The modern spelling reflects the Anglian form, as in sleep, greedy, sheep. Cognates Cognate with Scots stret, strete, streit (“street”), North Frisian Straat, stroot, struat (“street”) (North Frisian forms are borrowed from Middle Low German strâte), Saterland Frisian Sträite (“street”), West Frisian strjitte (“street”), Bavarian Stråßn (“street”), Dutch straat (“street”) (see doublet straat), German Strasse, Straße (“street”), German Low German Straat, Straote (“street”), Limburgish sjtraot, straot (“street”), Luxembourgish Strooss (“street”), Mòcheno stros (“street”), Vilamovian śtrös, štrȫs (“street”), Yiddish שטראָז (shtroz, “street”), Danish stræde (“alley, lane, narrow street”), Faroese and Icelandic stræti (“street”), Norwegian Bokmål strede (“narrow street”), Swedish stråt (“path, road, route; way, course”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese and Spanish estrada (“road”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”), Latin sternō, Ancient Greek στορνύναι (stornúnai). More at strew.

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Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.