Strathspey

//stɹæθˈspeɪ// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel.
  2. 2
    A piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance.

    "He muttered an exclamation in Gaelic, strode across the floor, and then, with an air of dogged resolution, as if prepared to see the scene to an end, sate himself down on the oak table and whistled a strathspey."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The area encompassing the upper part of the strath (valley) of Scotland’s River Spey in Highland council area, from its source in Loch Spey to the strath’s capital, Grantown-on-Spey.

Synonyms

All synonyms
dancehustlejigspeyside

Example

More examples

"He muttered an exclamation in Gaelic, strode across the floor, and then, with an air of dogged resolution, as if prepared to see the scene to an end, sate himself down on the oak table and whistled a strathspey."

Etymology

Etymology 1

After Strathspey, valley of the river Spey.

Etymology 2

From strath + Spey, an adaptation of Scottish Gaelic Srath Spè.

Related phrases

grantown on speyloch spey

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.