flabby
/ˈflæb.i/adjective
flabby is spelled F-L-A-B-B-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, flabby means “Yielding to the touch, and easily moved or shaken; hanging loose by its own weight; lacking firmness; flaccid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in flabby?
| Letters | 6: F-L-A-B-B-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 41,154th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is flabby?
Flabby appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce flabby?
- /ˈflæb.i/
Flabby has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-flabby.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of flabby
- flabbier comparative
- flabbiest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does flabby mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Yielding to the touch, and easily moved or shaken; hanging loose by its own weight; lacking firmness; flaccid.
- 2
Having a slight lack of acidity; having mild sweetness.
- 3
overwrought.
- 4
Which forms a surjection from the domain to every open subset of the codomain.
a flabby sheaf on a paracompact space
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Flabby in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flasque, ramolli |
| German | schlabberig, wabbelig, schwabbelig, quabbelig , flach |
| Portuguese | flácido |
| Spanish | fofo, lacio, bofo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does flabby come from?
From a variant of flappy, from flap (“to hang loose”). Compare English dialectal flapsy (“flabby”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a slap in the face; a fan-blade; a hair ribbon; a wagging tongue”), Middle Low German flabbe (“a gaping mouth; a chatterbox”), Danish flab (“the jaw; cheeks; a malapert”), Swedish flabb, fläff (“the hanging underlip of an animal; guffaw; driveller”), German Flabbe (“a gob; muzzle”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).