flat
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "flat", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "flat" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "flat" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
flat is anEnglishadj. It means: Having no variations in height. Pronounced /flæt/. It ranks #1,941 in English word frequency. Often confused with fly and flu.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | flat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /flæt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,941 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for flat is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /flæt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,941 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 30 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for flat, with forms such as "falt", "fflat", and "flatt". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fly", "flu", "Flo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological laye… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is flat, spelled F-L-A-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Having no variations in height.
- 2Having no variations in height.
- 3Having no variations in height.
- 4Having no variations in height.
- 5Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 6Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 7Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 8Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 9Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 10Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
- 11Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.
- 12Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.
- 13Lowered by one semitone.
- 14Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.
- 15Absolute; downright; peremptory.
- 16Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
- 17With all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
- 18Lacking acidity without being sweet.
- 19Unable to emit power; dead.
- 20Without spin; spinless.
- 21Sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant.
- 22Not having an inflectional ending or sign, such as a noun used as an adjective, or an adjective as an adverb, without the addition of a formative suffix; or an infinitive without the sign "to".
- 23Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft.
- 24Flattening at the ends.
- 25Exact.
- 26Such that the tensor product preserves exact sequences. See Flat module on Wikipedia.Wikipedia.
- 27Such that its target, regarded as a module over its source, is flat (as above).
- 28Such that the induced map on every stalk is flat (as a map of rings).
- 29Having little froth and little milk.
- 30Foolish; simple-minded.
Etymology
From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt. The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective. The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: falt,fflat,flatt,fllat,flta,lfat
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for flat
Misspelling Variants of "flat"
Frequency rank: #1,941 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: