flatfoot
noun, verb
flatfoot is a noun meaning “A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-L-A-T-F-O-O-T, and it appears about once in every 17 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of flatfoot is flatfoots or flatfeet.
What does flatfoot mean?
noun
- 1
A condition in which the arch of the foot makes contact with the ground.
- 2
A person having the above condition.
- 3
colloquialdatedderogatory(plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.
- 4
USinformalslangA sailor.
verb
- 1
To walk around in the course of work, especially when investigating.
- 2
To dance in the style of Appalachian clogging.
- 3
To gulp an entire drink (bottle, glass, can, etc.) without pausing between swallows.
- 4
To perform an action inefficiently or awkwardly.
- 5
To wrong-foot.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of flatfoot
- flatfoots plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- flatfeet plural
- flat-foot
- flatfooting participle, present
- flatfooted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is flatfoot?
Flatfoot appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th 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).
Flatfoot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition:
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 flatfoot come from?
From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).