strath

English

WOTD – 30 November 2025

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish srath and Scottish Gaelic srath (“wide, flat river valley, strath; floor of river valley; river meadow”), both from Old Irish srath (“grass, sward; river valley; floor of river valley; river meadow”), from Proto-Celtic *stratos (“valley”),^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *str̥h₃tós (“spread; stretched”, adjective), from *sterh₃- (“to extend, spread, stretch out”). The meaning was likely influenced by a Cumbric/Pictish cognate; compare Welsh ystrad. Doublet of stratus.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American, Scotland) IPA^(key): /stɹæθ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Audio (General American): (file)
(Ireland) IPA^(key): /stræh/
Rhymes: -æθ

Noun

strath (plural straths) (Ireland, Scotland)

A wide, flat river valley.
Coordinate terms: riverplain, glen
- 1720, Allan Ramsay, “The Poet’s Wish: An Ode”, in Poems, Edinburgh: Printed for the author […] [and sold by T. Jauncy […]], →OCLC, page 359:
  [T]hoſe fair Straths that vvater’d are / VVith Tay and Tvveed’s ſmooth Streams, / VVhich gentily and daintily / Eat dovvn the flovvry Braes; / As greatly and quietly / They vvimple to the Seas.
- 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “Highland Minstrelsy”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 334:
  [T]he other stream, which had its source among the mountains on the left hand of the strath, seemed to issue from a very narrow and dark opening betwixt two large rocks.
- 1874, Bayard Taylor, compiler, “[Godfrey Thomas] Vigne’s Journey to Cashmere”, in Central Asia. Travels in Cashmere, Little Tibet, and Central Asia (Illustrated Library of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure), New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong, and Company, →OCLC, pages 50–51:
  The place of exit from the hills of one or other of the Punjab rivers could generally be pointed out to me; the straths and gorges that opened upon the plains would often afford a peep into the interior of the mountains, and the snowy ranges would be seen at the end of them.
  Applied to a river valley in Asia.
- 1972, George Mackay Brown, chapter VI, in Greenvoe […], London: The Hogarth Press, published 1975, →ISBN, page 273:
  Agatha and Inga rode their horses with style across the strath.
A piece of flat land beside a body of water.
- 1699 May 24 (date written; Gregorian calendar), George Turnbull, “The Diary of the Rev. George Turnbull, Minister of Alloa and Tyninghame, 1657–1704 […]”, in Robert Paul, editor, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, published 1893, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 383:
  [T]he place is pretty pleasant, close by Forth waterside, att the foot of Craigmor, betwixt which and the watar there is a strath very proper for walking: […]

Usage notes

The word is found in Scottish place names. As it is usually the first element of such names (for example, the ones listed in the “Related terms” section below), these names are chiefly derived from Scottish Gaelic, or in some early cases in a Brythonic language or Pictish, rather than formed in English.^[1]

Related terms

Translations

wide, flat river valley

Finnish: laakea jokilaakso
French: strath (fr) m
German: Strath m
Indonesian: strath
Irish: srath m
Old Irish: srath m
Italian: strath m
Scottish Gaelic: srath m
Vietnamese: strath (vi)

piece of flat land beside a body of water

Finnish: rantatasanne
French: please add this translation if you can

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 “strath, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “strath, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

Hartts

[OED-1] 1.0 ^1.1 “strath, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “strath, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

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