flint

/flɪnt/

//flɪnt// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"flint" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“flint” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #10,049. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,049
frequency rank, English
2,507
“F” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.

Corpus desk

Index EN-flint · flint · English

flint · rank #10,049 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,049
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,507
  • PHOTO-FINISH floral

Nearest frequency peer: floral (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “flint”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “flint” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

flint vs flip
60% similar
flint vs font
60% similar
flint vs front
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for flint
PropertyValue
Headwordflint
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/flɪnt/
Letters5
Frequency rank#10,049
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “flint”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).flintlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “floral” (#10,050), “felony” (#10,047), “fortress” (#10,051). Among 2,507 “F” headwords, “flint” is #10,049. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around flint (IPA /flɪnt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #10,049 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for flint, with forms such as "fflint", "filnt", and "flinnt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "flip", "font", "front", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-West Germanic *flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Dutch vlint, flint (“flint, cobblestone”), German Flins, Flint (“flint, pebble”), Danish flint (“flint”)), from Proto-Indo-Europ… The correct English form is flint, spelled F-L-I-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.
  2. 2
    A piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.
  3. 3
    A small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
  4. 4
    A variety of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
  5. 5
    Anything figuratively hard.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how flint appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He used flint to make a fire.
  2. Some of the enormous fragments of chalk which are interstratified with drift have not only layers of undisturbed flints, but also sandpipes in the middle of them, or cylindrical cavities filled with sand and gravel […]

Etymology

From Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-West Germanic *flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Dutch vlint, flint (“flint, cobblestone”), German Flins, Flint (“flint, pebble”), Danish flint (“flint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)plind- (“to split, cleave”) (compare Irish slinn (“slate, shingle”), Ancient Greek πλίνθος (plínthos)), from *(s)pley- (“to split”). More at split.

This word in other languages

pedernal(Español)silex(Français)Feuerstein(Deutsch)sílex(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • fflint
  • filnt
  • flinnt
  • flintt
  • flitn
  • fllint
  • flnit
  • lfint

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

fflint1filnt2flinnt1flintt1flitn2fllint1flnit2lfint2
Edit distance from "flint"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "flint"?
"flint" is spelled F-L-I-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is /flɪnt/.
What does "flint" mean?
As a noun, "flint" means: A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air.
What words are commonly confused with "flint"?
"flint" is commonly confused with "flip", "font", "front". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "flint"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "flint" is /flɪnt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "flint"?
From Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-West Germanic *flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Dutch vlint, flint (“flint, cobblestone”), German Flins, Flint (“flint, pebble”), Danish flint (“flint”)), from Proto-... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "flint", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

digit#10,036jelly#10,069Kanye#10,071crawl#10,026

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

memoir8 variantsMiguel8 variantsnailed8 variantsantenna8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list