flint
/flɪnt/noun, verb
flint is spelled F-L-I-N-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). 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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of flint is flints.
How many letters and syllables are in flint?
| Letters | 5: F-L-I-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is flint?
Flint appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th 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 flint?
- /flɪnt/
Flint 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: En-us-flint.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of flint
- flints plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- flinting participle, present
- flinted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does flint mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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.
He used flint to make a fire.
- 2
A piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.
He used a flint to make a fire.
- 3
A small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
- 4
A variety of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
- 5
Anything figuratively hard.
- 6
UKobsoleteslangA tailor's employee who is paid by the day.
verb
- 1
To furnish or decorate an object with flint.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Flint in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | silex , pierre à fusil , pierre à briquet |
| German | Feuerstein, Flintstein, Flint, Silex , Zündstein |
| Portuguese | sílex, pederneira |
| Spanish | pedernal, sílex, moleña , piedra |
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 flint come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).