Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Streak |
StreakNoun1. An unbroken series of events: "a succession of failures"; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies". 2. A distinctive characteristic; "he has a stubborn streak"; "a streak of wildness". 3. A marking of a different color or texture from the background. 4. A sudden flash (as of lightning). Verb1. Move quickly in a straight line; "The plane streaked across the sky". 2. Run naked in a public place. 3. Mark with spots or blotches of different color or shades of color as if stained. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "streak" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1596. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Chemical Industry | A defect in yarn dyed, solid-colored material consisting of shaded --. Caused by imperfect dyeing. Source: European Union. (references) |
Geography | Long, narrow, irregular strip or stretch of land or water. Source: European Union. (references) |
Industry | Patch or broad streak of undissolved or devitrified material. Source: European Union. (references) |
| Thread of glass differing in colour from the surrounding glass. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Mining | A. The color of a mineral when scraped on a white ceramic plate. b. The color of a mineral powder usually obtained by scratching with steel or by rubbing on unglazed porcelain; it is more diagnostic for identification than bulk mineral color. c. A long, narrow, irregular stretch of land or water. d. A comparatively small and flattish or elongate sedimentary body, visibly differing from adjacent rock, but without the sharp boundaries typical of a lens or layer. e. A long, narrow body of sand, perhaps representing an old shoreline; a shoestring.f. The outcropping edge of a coal bed. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| stk | English | Streak | Geography, Mining |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: StreakSynonyms: run (n), stripe (n), blotch (v), mottle (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cowardice | Poltroonery, baseness; dastardness, dastardy; abject fear, funk; Dutch courage; fear; white feather, faint heart; cold feet , yellow streak. |
Furrow | Noun: furrow, groove, rut, sulcus, scratch, streak, striae, crack, score, incision, slit; chamfer, fluting; corduroy road, cradle hole. |
Indication | Mark, scratch, line, stroke, dash, score, stripe, streak, tick, dot, point, notch, nick. |
Length | Line, bar, rule, stripe, streak, spoke, radius. |
Narrowness Thinness | Line; hair's breadth, finger's breadth; strip, streak, vein. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Streak |
| English words defined with "streak": Bestreak, black lead, blacktail jackrabbit, brinded, brindle, brindled, Brown iron ore ♦ Ice blink ♦ Lepus californicus, losing streak ♦ meteor ♦ Primitive groove ♦ run ♦ shooting star, Shore lark, Streaking, Streek, Superciliary ♦ tabby ♦ Urva ♦ winning streak. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "streak": air streak ♦ chatoyancy ♦ Gonadal Dysgenesis, 46,XY, Gunpowder ♦ Ilarvirus ♦ Jet Max ♦ medullary spot ♦ ore shoot ♦ pith fleck, pith ray fleck ♦ rivers ♦ Silver Streak, Streak of Silver ♦ test stone. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | There's a strong streak of good in you, Superman (Superman; writing credit: Jerry Siegel; Joe Shuster) Ah, but we're afraid she has a homicidal streak. (High Society; writing credit: John Patrick. based on the play 'The Philadelphia Story' by Philip Barry.) Our brother has a yellow streak down his back (Love and Death; writing credit: Woody Allen) | |
Lyrics | 'Cause you see I'm on losing streak ((I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION; performing artist: The Rolling Stones) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Winning Streak (1974) The Silver Streak (1945) Kentucky Blue Streak (1935) The Silver Streak (1934) A Yellow Streak (1927) | |
Song Titles | Streak (performing artist: Ray Stevens) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A streak of blazing sky on the northern horizon. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Y'know -- I like this, Geraldine : by gracious! I believe there's a streak of ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Vaquero III [and] Streak. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Clouds. Long wide streak of clouds. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Streak with honor. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Light on Basement Wall" by Christie Ortiz Commentary: "This is a close up of a light in our basement & for some odd reason it came out with that blue streak of light..." | "Streaks" by Michelle Kwajafa Commentary: "Lights from cars streak at night." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Author Unknown | One person once said 'Silence is Golden'. Another said 'It's only a yellow streak.' |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The night passed, and with the first streak of dawn the women came out of the tents, built up the fires, and put the coffee to boil |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels. Moreover, it has the hearty concurrence of the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary Wilson became interested in gunpowder through an event that occurred on the Government experimental farm in the District of Columbia. One day, several years ago, a rogue imperfectly reverent of the Secretary's profound attainments and personal character presented him with a sack of gunpowder, representing it as the sed of the Flashawful flabbergastor, a Patagonian cereal of great commercial value, admirably adapted to this climate. The good Secretary was instructed to spill it along in a furrow and afterward inhume it with soil. This he at once proceeded to do, and had made a continuous line of it all the way across a ten-acre field, when he was made to look backward by a shout from the generous donor, who at once dropped a lighted match into the furrow at the starting-point. Contact with the earth had somewhat dampened the powder, but the startled functionary saw himself pursued by a tall moving pillar of fire and smoke and fierce evolution. He stood for a moment paralyzed and speechless, then he recollected an engagement and, dropping all, absented himself thence with such surprising celerity that to the eyes of spectators along the route selected he appeared like a long, dim streak prolonging itself with inconceivable rapidity through seven villages, and audibly refusing to be comforted. "Great Scott! what is that?" cried a surveyor's chainman, shading his eyes and gazing at the fading line of agriculturist which bisected his visible horizon. "That," said the surveyor, carelessly glancing at the phenomenon and again centering his attention upon his instrument, "is the Meridian of Washington." H |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Streak" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.73% of the time. "Streak" is used about 428 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.73% | 414 | 13,664 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 2.34% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.93% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 428 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "streak": a winning streak ♦ blue streak ♦ dry streak ♦ Garboard streak ♦ hard streak ♦ like a blue streak ♦ like a streak of lightning ♦ losing streak ♦ pay streak ♦ primitive streak ♦ streak across ♦ streak along ♦ streak away ♦ streak of bad luck ♦ streak of lightning ♦ streak of luck ♦ streak of melancholy ♦ streak off ♦ tomato streak ♦ what a streak of luck! ♦ winning streak ♦ yellow streak. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "streak": streak-free. | |
Ending with "streak": hear-streak, lap-streak, yellow-streak. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "streak"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shtresë (bed, coat, coating, course, covering, estate, flake, floor, horizon, layer, nappe, reach, region, seam, sheet, strata, stratum, tract, wash), vizoj (line, pencil, rut), vijë (ditch, gully, line, range, rill, rivulet, rut, set, stria, track), rrip (band, bandeau, belt, cincture, cleat, girdle, leash, riband, ribbon, slat, spline, strap, strip, tape, thong, trace, waist belt), periudhë (bout, chapter, date, day, epoch, hitch, hour, inning, innings, period, phase, run, season, span, stage, stretch, term, tide, time, tour, vintage), dell (vein), damar (lode, reef, seam, thread), brez (band, belt, cincture, descent, generation, girdle, remove, sash, scarf), bëj vija-vija (band). (various references) | |
Arabic | خطط (adumbrate, blueprint, chart, delimit, delineate, design, draught, limn, line, model, pencil in, plan, program, programme, project, protract, scheme, set out, stripe, trace), شريط (band, bar, ribbon, strip, stripe, tape), شعاع (bar, beam, radiation, ray, shaft), رسم خطوطا, أثر (bias, count, echo, effect, give rise to, hint, impress, influence, lead, mark, odor, odour, operate, prefer, repercussion, scent, sink, soupcon, tag, tinge, tint, touch, trace, trail, trait, vestige, work), إندفع كلمح البصر, جرى عاريا, بقعة (blot, blotch, macula, patch, smear, smudge, spatter, speck, splash, splotch, spot, stain, terrain), خط دقيق (hairline), مسحة (bit, hue, shade, smack, suggestion, tang, tinge, tint, touch, trace), طبقة (category, classification, coat, course, deposit, layer, order, place, rank, strata, stratum, tone), عرق معدني (ledge, lode, reef, rib), سلسلة من الإنتصارات, قلم (clip, cut, cut back, liner, manicure, pare, pen, prune, stria, stripe, trim), لطخ (bedaub, besmear, blot, blotch, blur, daub, smear, smirch, smudge, smutch, soil, splash, splotch, spot, stain, sully, taint, tarnish), نزعة (bent, bias, direction, disposition, genius, leaning, movement, penchant, ply, predisposition, proclivity, strain, temper, tendency, trend, wind), نقش بلون الرخام, خط (band, bar, calligraphy, hand, handwriting, line, stria, stripe, trace, writing). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | шаря с линии, ивица (band, border, edging, fillet, hem, list, slip, strap, stria), поредица (consecution, procession, range, row, run, sequence, series, set, string, succession), линия (foot rule, line, rule, ruler, score, set, side, tack), лека склонност към, елемент (cell, element, ingredient, member, strain, strand, trait, unit), жила (gristle, lead, string, vein), жилка (fiber, fibre, film, nerve, spice, strain, stria, thread, tinge, vein), драскотина (graze, scar, score, scotch, scrape, scratch), кратък период (snatch), ставам на резки, шаря с жилки, шаря с резки, тека на струйки оставяйки дири, тека на струйки оставяйки следи, тънък слой (film, lamella, lamina, suffusion), черта (base, ingredient, line, score, strand, stria, trace), рязка (incision, notch, ridge, scar, score, stria, stripe, weal, welt), вея се (dangle, flutter, stream). (various references) | |
Chinese | 線條 , 斑紋 (stripe), 条纹 (Striated, stripe, stripes). (various references) | |
Czech | pruhovat, pruh (band, bar, bicycle lane, strip, stripe, Wale, weal), proužkovat, proužek (strip, stripe), pramen (fountain, head, headspring, source, spring, strand, well, wellspring), povahový rys, paprsek (beam, flash, Ray), žíla nerostu, šmouha. (various references) | |
Danish | saarstriber til harpikstapning, taagestribe, plet (blot, spot), lag (bed, coat, course, lag, layer, level, ply, round, seam, sheath, sheet, slab, stratum, tier, veneer, veneer sheet), farvestribe (smoke, stripe), bacon (bacon), bånd (bond, tie). (various references) | |
Dutch | streep (line, ray, strip, stripe, stroke), streek (region, stroke, subterfuge, trick, trickery), schreef (line, stroke), schrap (stroke), haal (stroke). (various references) | |
Esperanto | streko (stroke). (various references) | |
Faeroese | strika (draw, line, make a stroke, stroke). (various references) | |
Farsi | میل (Bar, Delight, Desire, Goo, List, Perch, Ramrod, Rod, Stanchion, Stomach, Tendency, Turquoise, Will, Zest), نواریارگه نواری , ورقه (Brede, Form, Layer, Leaf, Leaflet, Paper, Sheet, Slab, Tablet, Ticket, Writ), تمایل (Gust, Hang, Inclination, List, Pendulum, Preoccupation, Sentiment, Tendency, Tenor, Tilt, Turquoise, Vein, Would, Yen), سپیده دم (Aurora, Cockcrow, Dawn, Daybreak), خطخطکردن (Scrabble), خط (Character, Fascia, Groove, Hand, Handwriting, Penmanship, Ruck, Stoppage), رگه (Grain, Rake, Strain, Thread, Vein), رگ (Vessel), بسرعت حرکت کردن (Dart, Jink). (various references) | |
Finnish | viiru, raita (stripe, willow), juova (ray, strip, stripe). (various references) | |
French | traînée (stripe), raie (stingray, strip, stripe, stroke), bande (strip, stripe). (various references) | |
German | streifen (binding, braid, brush, brush against, brush past, film, graze, kiss, line, panel, pink, prowl, range, rasher, ray, roam, roam about, scrape, shave, strap, strip, stripe, tab, tape, tape back, tape down, tape up, thread, to streak, to stripe, touch, touch lightly, touch upon, wander, wrapper), Strich (bow, dash, direction of growth, grain, line, nap, oblique, point, prostitution, red light district, slash, stretch, stroke, touch), schliere (cold surface, glassy inclusion, inhomogeneity, orange peel). (various references) | |
Greek | λωρίδα (lane, strip, weatherstrip). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לנוע במהירות הבזק, תקופה (age, cycle, epoch, era, period, season, space, stage, term, time), תכונה (attribute, character, habit, quality, temper, trait), קו אפי (lineament), קו (cord, line, outline, string), פס (band, line, stripe, track), חברבורה (spot, stripe), רצועה (band, belt, knout, lash, ligament, list, ribbon, strap, swivel, tape), נטיה (bent, deviation, disposition, inclination, leaning, liking, penchant, pitch, predilection, proclivity, propensity, rake, set, slant, spirit, taste, tendency, tenor, tide, tilt, trend). (various references) | |
Hungarian | csík (band, loach, ribbon, stria, striae, strip, stripe, stripping, tracking). (various references) | |
Indonesian | menggores (write), mencorengkan, coret, coreng, corek (long line). (various references) | |
Italian | striscia (slinks, strap, strip, stripe, tape, tiptoes, trail). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鉱脈 (ore vein, reef), 鉱脈 (reef), 条痕 (abrasion, linear mark, scratch). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | こうみゃく (reef), じょうこん (abrasion, linear mark, scratch). (various references) | |
Korean | 조흔. (various references) | |
Manx | schimmeig (chevron, dash, score, stripe), scheimmeigey (line), roie rooisht, rimmmeig, rimmeigey (line, stripe, weal). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eakstray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | risca (flick, stroke). (various references) | |
Romanian | stria (Chequer), vânã (load, rider, vein), tendinţã (aptness, bearing, bent, departure, determination, disposition, drift, drive, endeavor, endeavour, hang, inclination, leaning, proclivity, run, strain, striving, tendency, trend), perioadã (age, cycle, date, day, distance, epoch, era, lapse, period, repetend, season, stadium, stage, term, tide, time), linie (bar, direction, hang, line, lineage, Ray, row, ruler, series, stroke), linia (line, rule), fulgerare (flash, streak of lightning), fulger (bolt, Levin, lightning, post haste, thunderbolt), fâşie (band, ribbon, shred, slip, stripe), dungã (bar, border, edge, fold, furrow, stripe, wrinkle), brãzda (furrow, gutter, line, plough, ridge, score, slice, wrinkle), brâu (band, belt, cincture, girdle, girth, list, strip, waist, waistband, zone). (various references) | |
Russian | стрия, черта (band, crease, habit, line, stria, stripe, stroke, trace), прослойка (intercalation), прослоек (layer), проводить полосы, промчаться (shoot), прожилок, полоска (band, facia, fascia, strap, stria), полоса минерала, полоса (band, bar, facia, strip, stripe, windrow). (various references) | |
Scottish | strìoch (a streak, delineate, line). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | trag (mark, print, scuff, spoor, strain, tail, tinge, trace, tracing, track, trail, vestige, wake), pruga (line, stria, strip, stripe, track), projuriti (rush by, whizz), praviti pruge, kukavičluk (cowardice, recreancy), crtica (dash, hyphen, serif), žičica. (various references) | |
Spanish | veta (grain, lode, seam, stripe, vein), vena (grain, vein, vena), tocino de panceta (bacon, gammon), rayar (cross out, line, rifle, score, scratch, underline), raya (crease, dash, devilfish, hairline, line, Mark, parting, ray, score, scratch, sea devil, skate, stria, strip, stripe), rasgo (characteristic, dash, emotion, feature, flourish, lineament, quirk, trait, twirl, twist, vein), racha (air blast, gust of wind, puff, squall), pica (pica, pike), linea de separacion entre dos esmaltes sobrepuestos (schlieren pattern), correr desnudo, banda (band, banditti, bank, bend, brass band, gang, Lane, push, sash, scarf, set, side, strip, track, troop), bacon (bacon, gammon). (various references) | |
Swedish | strimma (flick, ray, slash, strip, stripe, trail, weal, welt), drag (draft, draught, draw, feature, move, odor, odour, pull, strain, stroke, sweep, touch, trait, tug, vein, whiff). (various references) | |
Turkish | meç (foil, rapier), kısa süre (piece, short notice, short time, snatch, span, spell), iz (birthmark, chip, clew, clue, dint, evidence, footprint, ghost, hint, ichno-, impress, impression, inkling, odor, odour, print, scar, shades, shadow, sign, smack, stamp, stigma, suggestion, suspicion, taint, tincture, tinge, touch, trace, track, trail, vestige, weal, wheal), hızlı gitmek (barrel, belt, scorch, spank along), damar (blood vessel, grain, nerve, phlebo-, string, vascular, vein, vessel), düzensiz çizgi, belirti (clinic, evidence, foretoken, glimpse, impression, indication, Mark, note, prognostic, prognostication, sign, spark, spark of, stamp, strain, symptom, tinge, token, trace), şimşek (flash, lightning, streak of lightning), acele etmek (be in a hurry, buck up, come along, drive, get a move on, hasten, hie, hotfoot, hotfoot it, hurry, hurry up, hustle, make haste, put a jerk in it, rush, scour, scour about, scurry, shake a leg, step on it, trot), çizgi çizgi boyamak, çırılçıplak geçmek, ışın (bar, beam, gleam, Ray, shaft). (various references) | |
Turkmen | зylgym (strip). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | риса, мережити, жилка (fibril, fibrilla), промайнути (flash, glance, glimpse, pass, pass off, shoot along, shoot forth, slip, snick). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vệt vỉa tính, thời kỳ (period), nết, nét (cast, line, trait), đường sọc. (various references) | |
Welsh | ystremp (blotch, dash, mess), rhibin, rhesen (line, stripe). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | fascia, virga. (various references) |
| Modern Latin | 1500-Modern | stria. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "streak": streaked, streaker, streakers, streakier, streakiest, streakiness, streakinesses, streaking, streakings, streaks, streaky. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "streak": hairstreak. (additional references) | |
Words containing "streak": hairstreaks. (additional references) | |
| |
"Streak" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Crrreak, Ostraea, Serreau, setcrea, stera, steral, sterbae, sterk, strea, streach, stread, strean, streat, streck, Streeck, strek, Stroan, stryka, treak. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "streak" (pronounced strē"k) |
| 3 | -r ē" k | creak, Creek, freak, greek, reek, shriek, wreak. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: skater, strake, takers. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-k-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: asker, aster, eskar, karst, karts, rakes, rates, saker, skate, stake, stare, stark, steak, taker, takes, tares, teaks, tears, treks. | |
-2 letters: ares, arks, arse, arts, ates, ears, east, eats, eras, erst, etas, kaes, kart, kats, keas, rake, rase, rate, rats, rest, rets, sake, sark, sate, sear, seat, sera, seta, skat, star, take, tare. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-k-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: darkest, karates, kraters, markets, rackets, rankest, restack, retacks, retakes, skaters, stacker, stalker, starker, straked, strakes, streaks, streaky, tackers, talkers, tankers. | |
+2 letters: asterisk, backrest, barkiest, basketry, brackets, brakiest, crankest, frankest, hektares, keratins, keratose, larkiest, meerkats, mistaker, overtask, partakes, restacks, retakers, retracks, sarkiest, seatwork, stackers, stalkers, stalkier, starkers, starkest, starlike, streaked, streaker, tacklers, thankers, trackers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Abbreviations 18. Acronyms 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
