# flint

> English word · Noun · IPA /flɪnt/ · frequency rank #10,049

## Definitions
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. A piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.
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.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **flip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flip)
- **font** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-font)
- **front** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-front)
- **float** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-float)
- **Flynn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flynn)
- **flirt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flirt)
- **flung** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flung)
- **flips** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flips)
- **flying** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flying)
- **fluent** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-fluent)
- **flirty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flint-vs-flirty)
- **fit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fit-vs-flint)
- **fin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fin-vs-flint)
- **find** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/find-vs-flint)
- **fine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fine-vs-flint)
- **flat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flat-vs-flint)
- **fist** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fist-vs-flint)
- **Finn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/finn-vs-flint)
- **fiat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fiat-vs-flint)
- **fins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fins-vs-flint)

## Common misspellings (8)
`fflint`, `filnt`, `flinnt`, `flintt`, `flitn`, `fllint`, `flnit`, `lfint`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/flint