stripe

¹ American  

[strahyp] / straɪp /

noun

1. a relatively long, narrow band of a different color, appearance, weave, material, or nature from the rest of a surface or thing.

   the stripes of a zebra.

2. a fabric or material containing such a band or bands.

3. a strip of braid, tape, or the like.

4. stripes,

   1. a number or combination of such strips, worn on a military, naval, or other uniform as a badge of rank, service, good conduct, combat wounds, etc.

   2. Informal. status or recognition as a result of one's efforts, experience, or achievements.

      She earned her stripes as a traveling sales representative and then moved up to district manager.

5. a strip, or long, narrow piece of anything.

   a stripe of beach.

6. a streak or layer of a different nature within a substance.

7. style, variety, sort, or kind.

   a man of quite a different stripe.

8. Also called magnetic stripe.  Movies. a strip of iron oxide layer on the edge of a film that is used for recording and reproducing a magnetic sound track.

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verb (used with object)

stripes, present (3rd person singular) striped, past participle, past striping present participle

1. to mark or furnish with a stripe or stripes.

stripe ² American  

[strahyp] / straɪp /

noun

1. a stroke with a whip, rod, etc., as in punishment.

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stripe ¹ British  

/ straɪp /

noun

1. a relatively long band of distinctive colour or texture that differs from the surrounding material or background

2. a fabric having such bands

3. a strip, band, or chevron of fabric worn on a military uniform, etc, esp one that indicates rank

4. kind; sort; type

   a man of a certain stripe

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verb

1. (tr) to mark with a stripe or stripes

stripe ² British  

/ straɪp /

noun

1. a stroke from a whip, rod, cane, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stripeless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• striping
  present
• striped
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stripe
  simple
• stripes
  simple
• have striped
  perfect
• has striped
  perfect
• am striping
  progressive
• are striping
  progressive
• is striping
  progressive
• have been striping
  perfect progressive
• has been striping
  perfect progressive

Past

• striped
  simple
• had striped
  perfect
• was striping
  progressive
• were striping
  progressive
• had been striping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stripe
  simple
• will have striped
  perfect
• will be striping
  progressive
• will have been striping
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of stripe¹

First recorded in 1620–30; probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German strīpe; see also strip ², stripe ²

Origin of stripe²

First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English; obscurely akin to stripe ¹

Example Sentences

Executives from DoorDash, Ripple, Stripe and other companies also have contributed.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2026

About five years ago, Nan Ransohoff, then head of climate at payments company Stripe, had an idea to get things moving.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026

Cursor is used by major companies including Stripe, Adobe and Nvidia, whose boss Jensen Huang has described it as his "favourite enterprise AI service".

From BBC • Jun. 16, 2026

Artificial-intelligence rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, data platform Databricks, and payment processor Stripe are all candidates for so-called mega-IPOs at valuations of $100 billion or more if SpaceX’s offering goes well.

From Barron's • May 22, 2026

The Headmaster was sitting behind the desk holding my Stripe in his fingers.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

Related Words

• ribbon