distrain

Questions about distrain

What does distrain mean?

distrain means "levy a distress on". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in distrain?

distrain has 2 syllables and divides as di-strain under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is distrain a common word?

distrain is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.