What does "street" mean?
A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.
Street
/stɹiːt/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.
- Grammar: street is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway.
- Useful contrasts: driveway, indoor life, inexperienced.
- Usage evidence: It is easier to hit on people on the Internet than in the street.
How to use "street"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "street" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "street" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "street" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "street" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "street" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "alley" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "street", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 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."
- 2 a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings wordnet
- 3 A road as above, but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.
"I live on the street down from Joyce Avenue."
- 4 the part of a thoroughfare between the sidewalks; the part of the thoroughfare on which vehicles travel wordnet
- 5 The roads that run perpendicular to avenues in a grid layout. Canada, US, specifically
Show 13 more definitions
- 6 people living or working on the same street wordnet
- 7 Metonymic senses:; The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.
- 8 a situation offering opportunities wordnet
- 9 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.
"Take or be taken. Get yours or get got. It was the code of the streets and I'd lived by it. The way things was looking, I was prolly gone die by it too."
- 10 the streets of a city viewed as a depressed environment in which there is poverty and crime and prostitution and dereliction wordnet
- 11 Metonymic senses:; An illicit or contraband source, especially of drugs.
"I got some pot cheap on the street."
- 12 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."
- 13 Living in the streets. attributive
"a street cat"
- 14 Streetwise slang. slang, uncountable
"Toaster is street for guns."
- 15 People in general, as a source of information. in-plural, slang
"Streets say something's happening tomorrow."
- 16 A great distance. figuratively
"He's streets ahead of his sister in all the subjects in school."
- 17 Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river. slang
- 18 A style of skateboarding featuring typically urban obstacles. uncountable
Verb
- 1 To build or equip with streets.
"There are few places on this ſide the Alps better built, and ſo well Streeted as this, and none at all ſo well girt with Baſtions and Ramparts, which in ſome places are ſo ſpacious, that they uſually take the Air in Coaches upon the very Walls, which are beautified with divers rows of Trees and pleaſant Walks."
- 2 To eject; to throw onto the streets.
"Stage doormen and all sorts of doormen are very quick at streeting a man who won't move fast. I know a well-known Irishman who at a New York theatre was streeted just because he was insisting on getting in when the house was apparently booked out."
- 3 To heavily defeat. broadly
"Wearing his custom-made silks, McCarthy duly rode the horse a treat as they streeted the opposition and helped connections clean up the bookies."
- 4 To go on sale.
"He points to the success of a recent Destiny's Child DVD that streeted just after member Beyonce's new solo CD"
- 5 To proselytize in public. Japanese, Mormonism
"A person I met streeting in Osaka told me the above Kanji examples as well as many others that I have since forgot."
Adjective
- 1 Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends. slang
"Eric had to admit that she looked street—upscale street, but still street. Kayla's look tended to change with the seasons; at the moment it was less Goth than paramilitary, with laced jump boots."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname. countable
- 2 A place in England:; A hamlet in Orton parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria (OS grid ref NY6208). countable, uncountable
- 3 A place in England:; A small village in Branscombe parish, East Devon district, Devon (OS grid ref SY1888). countable, uncountable
- 4 A place in England:; A hamlet in Nether Wyresdale parish, Wyre district, Lancashire (OS grid ref SD5252). countable, uncountable
- 5 A place in England:; A hamlet in Glaisdale parish, North Yorkshire (OS grid ref NZ7304). countable, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 A place in England:; A large village and civil parish in Somerset, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST4836). countable, uncountable
- 7 A place in England:; A hamlet in Holcombe parish, Somerset, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST6750). countable, uncountable
- 8 A place in England:; A hamlet in Winsham parish, Somerset (OS grid ref ST3507). countable, uncountable
- 9 A village in County Westmeath, Ireland. countable, uncountable
- 10 An unincorporated community in Harford County, Maryland, United States. countable, uncountable
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"It is easier to hit on people on the Internet than in the street."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "street"?
Common synonyms include: alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway, arterial street, artery.
How do you use "street" in a sentence?
It is easier to hit on people on the Internet than in the street.
How do you pronounce "street"?
Pronounced /stɹiːt/.
Etymology
From Middle English strete, from Anglian Old English strēt (“street”) (cognate 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”). 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, Icelandic stræti (“street”), Norwegian Bokmål strede (“narrow street”), Swedish stråt (“path, road, route; way, course”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese estrada (“road, way, drive”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”), Latin sternō, Ancient Greek στορνύναι (stornúnai). More at strew.