straighten
verb
Simple meaning
Put in order.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
straytuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɹeɪtən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause to become straight.
Put (things or places) in order
transitive
To put in order; to sort; to tidy up.
Get up from a sitting or slouching position
“The students straightened when the teacher entered.”
intransitive
To stand up, especially from a sitting position.
transitiveinformal
To make heterosexual.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause to become straight.
Used this way, straighten is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- unbend , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use straighten
- “The students straightened when the teacher entered.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A device for straightening.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Settle or put right.
Straighten oneself.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.