Word.ws English Dictionary

straight man

/ˈstɹeɪtˌmæn/

straight man noun: a member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.

Noun

straight man (plural straight men)

  1. (idiomatic) A member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.
    • For many years Bud Abbott served brilliantly as Lou Costello's deadpan straight man.
    • Recently he had successfully concluded a case featuring a poet who wore only latex, lived on liquorice allsorts and worshipped a horse she believed to be the reincarnation of Radclyffe Hall. And she was the straight man.2010, Caroline Graham, A Ghost in the Machine, Hachette UK, →ISBN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see straight, man; for example, a heterosexual man.
    • The committee consisted of two lesbians and a straight man.

Synonyms of straight man

Forms of straight man

pluralstraight men

Questions about straight man

What does straight man mean?
Straight man means a member (of any gender) of a team of comic performers who plays a supporting role by helping to set up jokes and punch lines through engaging in dialog with another comedian playing a more eccentric or otherwise more interesting character; a foil who plays such a role in theatrical comedy.
What part of speech is straight man?
Straight man is a noun.
How do you pronounce straight man?
Straight man is pronounced /ˈstɹeɪtˌmæn/.
What is the plural of straight man?
The plural of straight man is straight men.

Words near straight man in the dictionary

  1. straight jobs
  2. straight lace
  3. straight laces
  4. straight line
  5. straight lines
  6. straight man
  7. straight men
  8. straight off
  9. straight out
  10. straight out of the chute
  11. straight out of the gate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straight man (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-straight man.ogg.

Cite this entry: “straight man.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/straight_man. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.