flak
/flæk/noun
flak is spelled F-L-A-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “flack vs flak” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, flak means “Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of flak is flaks.
How many letters and syllables are in flak?
| Letters | 4: F-L-A-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th 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 flak?
Flak appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th 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 flak?
- /flæk/
Flak 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-flak.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with flak
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: flack (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: flack.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of flak
- flaks plural
- flack
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does flak mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells.
- 2
Anti-aircraft shell fire.
- 3
informalAdverse criticism.
- 4
informalA public-relations spokesperson.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Flak in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lutte anti-aérienne, DCA, défense anti-aérienne |
| German | Fliegerabwehrkanone, Flugabwehrkanone |
| Portuguese | bateria antiaérea , crítica |
| Spanish | fuego antiaéreo , criticismo adverso |
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 flak come from?
Borrowed from German FlaK, short for Fliegerabwehrkanone (“anti airplane cannon”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).