flagellate
/ˈflæ.d͡ʒəˌleɪt/verb, adjective, noun
flagellate is a verb meaning “To whip or scourge” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-L-A-G-E-L-L-A-T-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 13 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does flagellate mean?
verb
- 1
To whip or scourge.
- 2
To harshly chide or chastise, to reprimand.
- 3
Of a spermatozoon, to move its tail back and forth.
adjective
- 1
Resembling a whip.
- 2
Having flagella.
noun
- 1
Any organism that has flagella.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce flagellate?
- US /ˈflæ.d͡ʒəˌleɪt/
As an adjective (“Resembling a whip”): /fləˈd͡ʒɛ.lət/.
Flagellate has 3 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)-VGPaleontologist-flagellate_(verb,_to_whip).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Fae7-flagellate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of flagellate
- flagellates present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- flagellating participle, present
- flagellated participle, past
- more flagellate comparative
- most flagellate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is flagellate?
Flagellate appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd 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).
Flagellate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | flagelar |
| German | Geißeltierchen |
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.