strike one's flag

verb

"strike-one-s-flag" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“strike one's flag” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To take down one's national or other representative flag in order to indicate surrender.

Corpus desk

Index EN-strike-one-s-flag · strike one's flag · English

strike one's flag · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 17 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for strike one's flag
PropertyValue
Headwordstrike one's flag
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “strike one's flag” in English

strike one's flagfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

strike one's flag is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

strike one's flag doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is strike one's flag, spelled S-T-R-I-K-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -F-L-A-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    To take down one's national or other representative flag in order to indicate surrender.
  2. 2
    To yield, give up, or surrender.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. At length, having lost her fore and main-top-masts, and her mizzen-mast having been shot away to the deck, . . . the English frigate was reduced to the last extremity. Captain Cardan ordered his signal quarter-master to strike the flag.
  2. An Austro-Prussian army of 120.000 men . . . is of itself so imposing a spectacle that one is tempted to believe the little Kingdom of Denmark will strike its flag without firing a shot.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "strike one's flag"?
"strike one's flag" is spelled S-T-R-I-K-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -F-L-A-G.
What does "strike one's flag" mean?
As a verb, "strike one's flag" means: To take down one's national or other representative flag in order to indicate surrender.
What language does "strike one's flag" come from?
"strike one's flag" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list