• IPA: /ˈstɹɪkt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

stricture

1. (usually in plural) a rule restricting behaviour or action

   For them, parity is less an ultimate goal than a transitory and permissive springboard for testing Western resolve and pursuing whatever additional accretions of strategic power the strictures of SALT and American tolerance will allow.

2. a general state of restrictiveness on behavior, action, or ideology

   I just couldn't take the stricture of that place a single day more.

3. a sternly critical remark or review
4. (medicine) abnormal narrowing of a canal or duct in the body
5. (obsolete) strictness
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “Measvre for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:

     a man of stricture and firm abstinence

6. (obsolete) a stroke; a glance; a touch
7. (linguistics) the degree of contact, in consonants

• French: étranglement, rétrécissement
• Spanish: estenosis