flack
/flæk/verb, noun
flack is spelled F-L-A-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “flack vs flak” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, flack means “To hang loosely; flag” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in flack?
| Letters | 5: F-L-A-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,789th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is flack?
Flack appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th 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 flack?
- /flæk/
Flack has one syllable (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: En-au-flack.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with flack
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: flak (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: flak.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of flack
- flacks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- flacking participle, present
- flacked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does flack mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo flutter; palpitate.
- 2
UKTo hang loosely; flag.
- 3
UKTo beat by flapping.
- 4
CanadaUSTo publicise, to promote.
noun
- 1
CanadaUSA publicist, a publicity agent.
- 2
Alternative spelling of flak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does flack come from?
From Middle English flacken (“to palpitate, flutter”), from Old English *flaccian, from Proto-West Germanic *flakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *flakkōną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-, which could be related to Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to turn away from”). Akin to Middle Dutch vlacken (“to flicker, flash, sparkle”), Danish flakke (“to wander”), Swedish flacka (“to rove, rove about, ramble”), Icelandic flakka (“to move”). Compare also Icelandic flaka (“to flap, hang loose”), Swedish flaxa (“to flap, flutter”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).