flag

Where “flag” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
2. 2
   The design that could be placed on a flag, typically a rectangular graphic that is used to represent an entity (like a country, organisation or group of people) or an idea.
3. 3
   A flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.
4. 4
   A signal flag.
5. 5
   The use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.
6. 6
   A variable or memory location that stores a Boolean true-or-false, yes-or-no value, typically either recording the fact that a certain event has occurred or requesting that a certain optional action take place.
7. 7
   In a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.
8. 8
   A mechanical indicator that pops up to draw the pilot's attention to a problem or malfunction.
9. 9
   The game of capture the flag.
10. 10
    A sequence of faces of a given polytope, one of each dimension up to that of the polytope (formally, though in practice not always explicitly, including the null face and the polytope itself), such that each face in the sequence is part of the next-higher dimension face.
11. 11
    A sequence of subspaces of a vector space, beginning with the null space and ending with the vector space itself, such that each member of the sequence (until the last) is a proper subspace of the next.
12. 12
    A dark piece of material that can be mounted on a stand to block or shape the light.
13. 13
    An apron.
14. 14
    An indication that a certain outcome or event is going to happen, deduced not logically or causally, but as a pattern in a piece of media. Chiefly used in video games and adjacent media, especially visual novels, it is typically described as being raised or set by the plot or words of a character.
15. 15
    A groat; fourpence.

Etymology

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: falg,fflag,flga,fllag,lfag

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flag - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

Frequently Asked Questions