Added 9 October 2026
stroke
/stɹəʊk/ noun
In Latin: plāga Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about stroke at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
-
(sports) the act of swinging or striking at a ball with a club or racket or bat or cue or hand.
it took two strokes to get out of the bunker
- The maximum movement available to a pivoted or reciprocating piece by a cam.
- A sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain.
verb
Origin
The noun is derived from Middle English strok, stroke (“blow from a weapon, cut”), from Old English strāc, from Proto-West Germanic *straik, from Proto-Germanic *straikaz (“stroke”), from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to rub, stroke; to shear; to strike”). Sense 3.5.2.2 (“the oblique, slash, or virgule (‘/’)”) is a contraction of oblique stroke, a variant of oblique which was originally used in telegraphy. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * German Streich (“stroke”) * Middle Low German strēk (“stroke, trick, prank”) * Scots strak, strake, straik (“blow, stroke”)
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)