A narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water.

synonym: sound.

Roget 343: land covered with water, gulf, gulph^†, bay, inlet, bight, estuary, arm of the sea, bayou [U.S.], fiord, armlet; frith^†, firth, ostiary^†, mouth; lagune^†, lagoon; indraught^†; cove, creek; natural harbor; roads; strait; narrows; Euripus; sound, belt, gut, kyles^†; continental slope, continental shelf.    lake, loch, lough^†, mere, tarn, plash, broad, pond, pool, lin^†, puddle, slab, well, artesian well; standing water, dead water, sheet of water; fish pond, mill pond; ditch, dike, dyke, dam; reservoir etc. (store) 636; alberca^†, barachois^†, hog wallow [U.S.].    ... show more

Dutch: straat
Polish: cieśnina

A bad or difficult situation or state of affairs.

synonyms: pass, straits.

Roget 704: difficulty; hardness etc. adj.; impracticability etc. (impossibility) 471; tough work, hard work, uphill work; hard task, Herculean task, Augean task^†; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper^†, dead lift.    dilemma, embarrassment; deadlock; perplexity etc. (uncertainty) 475; intricacy; entanglement, complexity etc. 59; cross fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus [Lat.], net, meshes, maze; coil etc. (convolution) 248; crooked path; involvement.    nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point; vexed question, vexata quaestio [Lat.], poser; puzzle etc. (riddle) 533; paradox; hard nut to crack, nut to crack; bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum [Lat.], where the shoe pinches.    nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt; critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble.    scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea of troubles, peck of troubles; pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado; false position.    set fast, stand, standstill; deadlock, dead set.    fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac [Fr.]; hitch; stumbling block etc. (hindrance) 706.    [difficult person] crab; curmudgeon.    ... show more

Roget 198: interval, interspace^†; separation etc. 44; break, gap, opening; hole etc. 260; chasm, hiatus, caesura; interruption, interregnum; interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure^†, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha.    gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm; gulf; inlet, frith^†, strait, gully; pass; furrow etc. 259; abra^†; barranca^†, barranco^†; clove [U.S.], gulch [U.S.], notch [U.S.]; yawning gulf; hiatus maxime [Lat.], hiatus valde deflendus [Lat.]; parenthesis etc. (interjacence) 228^†; void etc. (absence) 187; incompleteness etc. 53.    [interval of time] period etc. 108; interim (time) 106.    ... show more

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