strain
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
straynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɹeɪn
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.
noun
biology
A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
An intense or violent exertion
A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.
An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
musicpoetry
Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.
verb
transitive
To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.
transitive
To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.
transitive
To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
transitive
To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander.
transitive
To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.
transitive
To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
Used this way, strain is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use strain
- “His responsibilities were a constant strain.”noun
- “She endured the stresses and strains of life.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An intense or violent exertion.
A filter to retain larger pieces while smaller pieces and liquids pass through.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A gauge for measuring strain in a surface.
A gauge for measuring strain in a surface.
Any of several tropical annual climbers having large yellow flowers and edible young fruits.
Slang for a mustache.
A device to keep back tea leaves when pouring a cup of tea.
Feeds primarily on cotton.
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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.