n. 1
An act of hitting; a blow, a hit.
n. 2
An act of hitting; a blow, a hit. An act of striking with a weapon; a blow.
Singapore plans to cane scammers and scam mules, with mandatory caning of at least six strokes for scammers and discretionary caning for mules.
v. 1
To move one's hand or an object (such as a broom or brush) along (a surface) in one direction, touching it lightly; to caress. To masturbate.
v. 2
To influence (someone) by convincing or flattering them.

Related words

Word family: strokable
Phrases: stroke of work t with stroke forward stroke stroke of luck butterfly stroke hemorrhagic stroke mini stroke oblique stroke

Forms

Plural: strokes → disasters, blows, accidents, misfortunes…
Past participle: stroked
e.g. stroked → caressed, puffed, soft-soaped, cajoled…

Choose the right word

Stroke, Blow or Stripe?

A blow is a sudden impact, as of a fist or a club; a stroke is a sweeping movement; as, the stroke of a sword, of an oar, of the arm in swimming. A stripe is the effect or mark of a stroke.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

accident The accident was due to the driver's carelessness.
apoplexy The medical evidence showed conclusively that death was due to apoplexy.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
stroke		rising
accident		falling
fortuity		steady
solidus		falling
separatrix		steady
apoplexy		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: hit¹
4 letters: shot¹, blow¹, soap¹, dash¹, lick¹, chop¹, puff¹
5 letters: touch¹, abuse², shock¹, knock¹, slash¹, jolly², preen¹
6 letters: attack², travel², impact², stripe¹, soothe¹, caress², cajole²
7 letters: seizure², solidus, virgule²
8 letters: accident³, disaster³, diagonal⁴, calamity⁴, apoplexy⁴, fortuity
9 letters: pulsation
10 letters: misfortune³, visitation⁴, separatrix

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (abuse² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: accident vasculaire cérébral
Español: ictus
Deutsch: Schlaganfall