flash

Where “flash” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
2. 2
   To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
3. 3
   To be visible briefly.
4. 4
   To make visible briefly.
5. 5
   To expose one's intimate body part or undergarment, often momentarily and unintentionally. (Contrast streak.)
6. 6
   To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
7. 7
   To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
8. 8
   To communicate quickly.
9. 9
   To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
10. 10
    To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
11. 11
    To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
12. 12
    To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
13. 13
    To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
14. 14
    To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
15. 15
    To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
16. 16
    To send by some startling or sudden means.
17. 17
    To burst out into violence.
18. 18
    To perform a flash.
19. 19
    To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
20. 20
    To trick up in a showy manner.
21. 21
    To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
22. 22
    To flash back.

Etymology

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: falsh,fflash,flahs,flashh,flassh,fllash,flsah,lfash

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flash - 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