straight

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a heterosexual person; someone having a sexual orientation to persons of the opposite sex
  2. noun a poker hand with 5 consecutive cards (regardless of suit)
  3. noun a straight segment of a roadway or racecourse

Etymology

From Middle English streight, streght, streiȝt, the past participle of strecchen (“to stretch”), from Old English streċċan (past participle ġestreaht, ġestreht), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch”). Cognate with Scots straicht (“straight”), Dutch gestrekt (“stretched”), German gestreckt (“stretched”), Danish strakt (“stretched”), Faroese and Norn strekti (“stretched”), Icelandic strekkti (“stretched”), Norwegian strekte (“stretched”), Swedish sträckte (“stretched”). Doublet of straught. Equivalent to stretch + -ed. In some senses, conflated with strait (“narrow, constricted”), which is from Latin strictus via Old French estreit.

In classic literature

Synonyms

heterosexual, heterosexual person, straight person

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