Strait vs. Inlet — What's the Difference?

A strait is a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most commonly it is a channel of water that lies between two land masses.

An inlet is an indentation of a shoreline, usually long and narrow, such as a small bay or arm, that often leads to an enclosed body of salt water, such as a sound, bay, lagoon, or marsh.

A narrow channel joining two larger bodies of water

A small arm of the sea, a lake, or a river.

A position of difficulty, perplexity, distress, or need

A place or means of entry

Difficult; stressful.

(chiefly in tailoring and dressmaking) a piece of material inserted into a garment.

Having or marked by limited funds or resources.

A recess, such as a bay or cove, along a coast.

Narrow or confined.

A stream or bay leading inland, as from the ocean; an estuary.

Fitting tightly; constricted.

A narrow passage of water, as between two islands.

Strict, rigid, or righteous.

A drainage passage, as to a culvert.

(archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

An opening providing a means of entrance or intake.

(archaic) Righteous, strict.

(transitive) To let in; admit.

(obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.

(transitive) To insert; inlay.

(obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.

(firearms) To carve the wooden stock of a firearm so as to position the metal components in it.

(obsolete) Difficult; distressful.

A body of water let into a coast, such as a bay, cove, fjord or estuary.

(obsolete) Parsimonious; stingy; mean.

A passage that leads into a cavity.

(geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

A passage by which an inclosed place may be entered; a place of ingress; entrance;

A narrow pass, passage or street.

A bay or recess, as in the shore of a sea, lake, or large river; a narrow strip of water running into the land or between islands.

A neck of land; an isthmus.

That which is let in or inlaid; an inserted material.

A difficult position.

An arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands)

To confine; put to difficulties.

To tighten.

(obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.

A variant of Straight.

Narrow; not broad.

Tight; close; closely fitting.

Close; intimate; near; familiar.

Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.

Difficult; distressful; straited.

Parsimonious; niggargly; mean.

Strictly; rigorously.

A narrow pass or passage.

A (comparatively) narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water; - often in the plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw.

A neck of land; an isthmus.

Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; - sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits.

To put to difficulties.

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

A bad or difficult situation or state of affairs

Strict and severe;