Origin of word flat

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• enPR: flăt, IPA^(key): /flæt/
• Rhymes: -æt

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr^[1] (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”)^[2]. Doublet of plat and pleyt.

The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.

Alternative forms[edit]

• flatt, flatte (both obsolete)

Adjective[edit]

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

1. Having no variations in height.

   The land around here is flat.

   1. In a horizontal line or plane; not sloping.

      a flat roof

   2. Smooth; having no protrusions, indentations or other surface irregularities, or relatively so.

      The surface of the mirror must be completely flat.

      The carpet isn’t properly flat in that corner.

      She has quite a flat face.

      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

        The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].

   3. (slang) Having small or invisible breasts and/or buttocks.

      That girl is completely flat on both sides.

2. Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.

   The exchange rate has been flat for several weeks.

   1. At a consistently depressed level; consistently lacklustre.

      Sales have been flat all year, and we’ve barely broken even.

   2. (not comparable, commerce) Of fees, fares etc., fixed; unvarying.

      a flat fee

      flat rates

      a flat fare on public transport

   3. (music, voice) Without variations in pitch.

      He delivered the speech in a flat tone.

   4. (of colours) Without variation in tone or hue (uniform), and dull (not glossy).

      The walls were painted a flat gray.

      Synonym: matte

3. (figurative) Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.

   The party was a bit flat.

   The market is flat today as most traders are on holiday.

   The dialogue in your screenplay is flat — you need to make it more exciting.

   • February 16, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk

     A large part of the work is, to me, very flat.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world.

   1. (authorship, figuratively, especially of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.

      Antonym: round

      The author added a chapter to flesh out the book’s flatter characters.

4. (music, note) Lowered by one semitone.
5. (music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.

   Your A string is flat.

6. Absolute; downright; peremptory.

   His claim was in flat contradiction to experimental results.

   I’m not going to the party and that’s flat.

   • 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC; republished as Hermann Breymann, editor, Doctor Faustus (Englische Sprach- und Literaturdenkmale des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts; 5; Marlowes Werke: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe […]; II), Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg: Verlag von Gebr[üder] Henninger, 1889, →OCLC, scene IV, lines 436–440, page 38:

     Wag[ner]. Vilaine, call me Maister Wagner, and let thy left eye be diametarily fixt vpon my right heele, with quasi vestigias nostras insistere [as if to follow in our footsteps]. / Clown. God forgiue me, he speakes Dutch fustian: / Well, Ile folow him, Ill serue him, that’s flat.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     SECOND WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.
     DOGBERRY. Flat burglary as ever was committed

   • 1602, John Marston, Antonio and Mellida, Malone Society Reprint, 1921, Act I, lines 324-326,^[2]

     He is made like a tilting staffe; and lookes

     For all the world like an ore-rosted pigge:

     A great Tobacco taker too, thats flat.

7. (of a tire or other inflated object) Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
8. (of a carbonated drink) With all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
9. (wine) Lacking acidity without being sweet.
10. (of a battery) Unable to emit power; dead.
11. (juggling, of a throw) Without spin; spinless.
12. (phonetics, dated, of a consonant) Sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant.
13. (grammar) Not having an inflectional ending or sign, such as a noun used as an adjective, or an adjective as an adverb, without the addition of a formative suffix; or an infinitive without the sign «to».

    Many flat adverbs, as in ‘run fast’, ‘buy cheap’, etc. are from Old English.

14. (golf, of a golf club) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft.
15. (horticulture, of certain fruits) Flattening at the ends.
16. (of measurements of time) Exact.

    He finished the race in a flat four minutes.

Synonyms[edit]

• (having no variations in altitude): even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform
• (without variations in pitch): monotone
• (uninteresting): boring, dull, uninteresting; see also Thesaurus:boring
• (deflated): deflated, punctured
• (of a carbonated drink: no longer fizzes): still, unfizzy; see also Thesaurus:noneffervescent
• (of wine: lacking acidity): flabby

Antonyms[edit]

• (having no variations in altitude): bumpy, cratered, hilly (of terrain), rough (of a surface), wrinkled (of a surface)
• (music: lowered by one semitone): sharp
• (music: lower in pitch than it should be): sharp

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

flat (comparative more flat, superlative most flat)

1. So as to be flat.

   Spread the tablecloth flat over the table.

2. Bluntly.

   I asked him if he wanted to marry me and he turned me down flat.

3. (of accurately measured timings) Exactly, precisely.

   • 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 186:

     Dan Patch clocked a scorching 1:55.5 flat.

   In the mile race, Smith’s time was 3:58.56, and Brown’s was four minutes flat.

4. (with units of time, distance, etc) Used to emphasize the smallness of the measurement.

   He can run a mile in four minutes flat.
5. Completely.

   I am flat broke this month.

6. Directly; flatly.

   • [1633], George Herbert, [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, →OCLC:

     Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.

7. (finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.

   The bonds are trading flat.

Synonyms[edit]

• (so as to be flat):
• (bluntly): bluntly, curtly
• (not exceeding): tops
• (completely): absolutely, completely, utterly

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

flat (plural flats)

1. An area of level ground (sometimes covered with water).

   The hovercraft skimmed across the open flats.

   the eastern end of the salt flat; mud flat, tidal flat, flood flat

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Envy”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients:

     My hopes wa’n’t disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that ‘twouldn’t be a bad idee to get a lot more, take ’em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle ’em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

   1. (in the phrase ‘the flat’) Level ground in general.

      I can run on the flat but not up hills.

      The going will be easier once we’re through these mountains and onto the flat.

   2. (horse racing, with ‘the’ or attributively, sometimes with capital) Level horse-racing ground, as contrasted with courses incorporating jumps, or the racing done on such ground.

      This horse will do better over the flat.

      flat racing, the flat season

      • 2020, Brian Sheerin, Racing Post, «Gordon Elliott maps out summer Flat campaigns for talented jumpers» (article) [3]

        In light of Horse Racing Ireland’s Covid-19 contingency plan announcement, that whenever racing resumes the Flat will be given priority, Elliott has decided to keep a number of talented jumpers on the go during the summer, with a view towards a dual-purpose campaign.

      • 2021 (retrieved), racing365.com, «Flat Racing Explained» [4]

        In British horse racing, the classics are a series of horse races run over the flat (i.e. without jumps).

   3. (Australia, horse racing, with ‘the’ or attributively, sometimes with capital) the area in the centre of a racecourse.

      • 1963, George Blaikie, Scandals of Australia’s Strange Past, Adelaide: Rigby Limited, page 117:

        As forecast, Joe suspected nothing as he pottered round the flat in the sunshine, absorbed in the task of picking winners.

3. (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol ♭ placed after the letter representing the note (e.g., B♭) or in front of the note symbol (e.g. ♭♪).

   The key of E♭ has three flats.

4. (informal, automotive) A flat tyre/flat tire.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent.

5. (in the plural) A type of ladies’ shoe with a very low heel.

   She liked to walk in her flats more than in her high heels.

6. (in the plural) A type of flat-soled running shoe without spikes.
7. (painting) A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolour painting.
8. The flat part of something:
   1. (swordfighting) The flat side of a blade, as opposed to the sharp edge.
   2. The palm of the hand, with the adjacent part of the fingers.
9. A wide, shallow container or pallet.

   a flat of strawberries

10. (mail) A large mail piece measuring at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches, such as catalogs, magazines, and unfolded paper enclosed in large envelopes.
11. (rail transport, US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.

    • 1960 November, David Morgan, “»Piggyback»—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 684:

      For example, when trailers containing new automobiles were first piggybacked two areas of potential damage became evident: (1) diesel locomotive exhaust left a film of oil on the new autos; and (2) auto windshields could be scarred or cracked by the metal-tipped «tell-tales» which warn men atop trains of oncoming bridges or tunnels. Accordingly, automobiles aboard piggyback flats are usually coupled into the train 15 or more cars behind the locomotive; and telltales have been raised.

12. A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
13. (geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
14. A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
15. A flat sheet for use on a bed.
    • 1986, New York Magazine (volume 19, number 49, page 20)

      You might think that Americans buy roughly the same number of fitted sheets as flats. Or, considering the market for electric blankets, duvets, and other covers, that consumers buy even more bottom sheets, simply forgoing the tops.

16. (publishing) A flat, glossy children’s book with few pages.
    • 1970, The Publishers Weekly (volume 197, page 85)

      This same publisher notes pricing is a crucial factor in the mass market field of $1, $1.95 and $2.95 «flats.»

17. A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
18. (mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal^[3].
19. (technical, theatre, stagecraft) A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan, or muslin, often produced in standard modules, that is used to build wall surfaces on stage. Flats can be painted and outfitted with doors and/or windows to depict a building or other part of a scene. It’s a hard-surfaced alternative to a backcloth orbackdrop.
20. (entomology) Any of various hesperiid butterflies that spread their wings open when they land.
21. (historical) An early kind of toy soldier having a flat design.
    • 2019, Luigi Toiati, The History of Toy Soldiers (page 78)

      Among the many US museums hosting flats, we may mention the Toy Soldier Museum in the Pocono Mountains, supervised by the historian, collector and dealer J. Hillestad.

22. (obsolete) A dull fellow; a simpleton.
    • 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., «The Music-Grinders»:

      […] if you cannot make a speech,

      Because you are a flat,

      Go very quietly and drop

      A button in the hat!
23. Short for flat ride (“spinning amusement ride”).
24. (optics) A flat (i.e. plane) mirror
25. (gambling, slang) A cheater’s die with the edges shaved to make certain rolls more likely.
    • 2005, Fred Cicetti, Local Angles: The Big News in Small Towns (page 78)

      He would slip in his six-ace flats, shaved dice that were made to bring up sevens. He’d throw them just long enough to get well, and then replace them with legitimate cubes.

Antonyms[edit]

• (note): sharp
• (shoes): high heels

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

1. (poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without raising.
2. (intransitive) To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
3. (intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.
4. (transitive, music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
5. (transitive, dated) To make flat; to flatten; to level.
   • 1764, James Granger, M.D., The Sugar-Cane: a Poem. In Four Books. With Notes. Book 1, page 44, note to verse 605.

     The pods, which seldom contain less than thirty nuts of the size of a flatted olive, grow upon the stem and principal branches.

6. (transitive, dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.

   • a. 1678 (date written)​, Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:

     Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted.

Etymology 2[edit]

From 1795, alteration of Scots flet (“inner part of a house”), from Middle English flet (“dwelling”), from Old English flet, flett (“ground floor, dwelling”), from Proto-Germanic *flatją (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”). More at flet, flat₁.

Noun[edit]

flat (plural flats)

2. (chiefly Britain, New England, New Zealand and Australia, archaic elsewhere) An apartment, usually on one level and usually consisting of more than one room.
   • 1905, Sydney Perks, Residential flats of all classes, including artisans’ dwellings: a practical treatise on their planning and arrangement, together with chapters on their history, financial matters, etc.,with numerous illustrations, page 204,

     The excellence of French flats is so well known in America, that the owner will often refer to his property as «first class French flats.»

   • 1953 January 1, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”, in My Heart Belongs to Daddy‎^[5], performed by Marilyn Monroe:

     A kiss may be grand but it won’t pay the rental on your humble flat or help you at the automat.

   • 1955 November 3, “Guys and Dolls”, in Guys and Dolls (Original Broadway Cast Recording)‎^[6], performed by Stubby Kaye(as Nicely Nicely Johnson), Johnny Silver(as Benny Southstreet):

     [NICELY]When you meet a gent paying all kinds of rent for a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal. [BOTH]Call it sad, call it funny but it’s better than even money that the guy’s only doing it for some doll.

   • 1983, Tai Ching Ling, Relocation and Population Planning: A Study of the Implications of Public Housing and Family Planning in Singapore, Wilfredo F. Arce, Gabriel C. Alvarez (editors), Population Change in Southeast Asia, page 184,

     Fifteen percent of this group said that they were not satisfied with the public housing estates and their HDB^{[Singapore Housing & Development Board]} flats (see Tables 11 and 12 respectively).

   • 2002, MIchael Ottley, Briefcase on Company Law, page 76,

     The Greater London Council formed the Estmanco company to manage a block of 60 council-owned flats. The council entered into an agreement with the company to sell off the flats to owner-occupiers.

   • 2014, Terry Gourvish, Dolphin Square: The History of a Unique Building, page 75,

     When the Dolphin Square’s flats were first offered to the public in 1936, the South Block was still under construction, and the North Block was a building site.

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:

     Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel’s raison d’être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town’s worst (exemplified by its final review: «Please avoid at all costs»), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.

Synonyms[edit]

• (apartment): apartment

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English flatten, from Old French flatir (“to knock or strike down, dash”), from Frankish *flattjan (“to move the palm of the hand”), from Proto-Germanic *flatjaną (“to make flat, flatten”).

Verb[edit]

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To beat or strike; pound
2. (transitive) To dash or throw
3. (intransitive) To dash, rush

Derived terms[edit]

• flatter (“hammer”)

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• falt

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English flat.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /ˈflɛt/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /ˈflɑt/
• (Hollandic)
• Hyphenation: flat
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun[edit]

flat m (plural flats, diminutive flatje n)

1. flat, apartment
2. tower block

Derived terms[edit]

• galerijflat
• flatgebouw
• torenflat

Indonesian[edit]

Noun[edit]

flat (first-person possessive flatku, second-person possessive flatmu, third-person possessive flatnya)

1. flat house

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

flat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of flō

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• flatt, flatte

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse flatr, from Proto-Germanic *flataz.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /flat/

Adjective[edit]

flat

1. level, even, smooth

Descendants[edit]

• English: flat
• Yola: vlat

References[edit]

• “flat, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse flatr.

Adjective[edit]

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatere, indefinite superlative flatest, definite superlative flateste)

1. flat

Derived terms[edit]

• flatbrystet

References[edit]

• “flat” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse flatr.

Adjective[edit]

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatare, indefinite superlative flatast, definite superlative flataste)

1. flat

References[edit]

• “flat” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /flɑːt/

Verb[edit]

flāt

1. first/third-person singular preterite of flītan

Scottish Gaelic[edit]

Noun[edit]

flat m (genitive singular flat, plural flataichean)

1. saucer
2. flat, apartment

Synonyms[edit]

• (saucer): sàsar

Mutation[edit]

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
flat	fhlat
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse flatr, from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“flat”).

Adjective[edit]

flat (comparative flatare, superlative flatast)

1. flat (having no variations in altitude)

   Solen reflekterades i spegelns flata yta.

   The sun was reflected in the flat surface of the mirror.

2. spineless, being a doormat, abstaining from defending one’s convictions

   Han var alldeles för flat mot chefen, och fick inte heller någon löneökning.

   He let the manager walk all over him and did not get a raise.

Declension[edit]

Inflection of flat
Indefinite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative2
Common singular	flat	flatare	flatast
Neuter singular	flatt	flatare	flatast
Plural	flata	flatare	flatast
Masculine plural3	flate	flatare	flatast
Definite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Masculine singular1	flate	flatare	flataste
All	flata	flatare	flataste
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic

Synonyms[edit]

• (flat): platt
• (spineless): eftergiven, mjäkig

Anagrams[edit]

• -falt, falt

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I had a dog I raised for many years. He was a Pekingese with big eyes and a flat face, very cute.

Stephen Chow

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD FLAT

From Old Norse flatr; related to Old High German flaz flat, Greek platus flat, broad.

PRONUNCIATION OF FLAT

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF FLAT

Flat is a verb and can also act as a noun, an adjective and an adverb.

WHAT DOES FLAT MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of flat in the English dictionary

The first definition of flat in the dictionary is horizontal; level. Other definition of flat is even or smooth, without projections or depressions. Flat is also lying stretched out at full length; prostrate.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO FLAT

PRESENT

PAST

FUTURE

CONDITIONAL

IMPERATIVE

NONFINITE VERB FORMS

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH FLAT

SYNONYMS OF «FLAT»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «flat» and belong to the same grammatical category.

TRANSLATION OF FLAT

Find out the translation of flat to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «FLAT»

The term «flat» is very widely used and occupies the 2.485 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of flat

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «FLAT» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «FLAT»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word flat.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «FLAT»

Discover the use of flat in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to flat and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «FLAT»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term flat is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Flat [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/flat>. Apr 2023 ».

• Dictionary
• F
• Flat

Definitions of flat word

• adjective flat horizontally level: a flat roof. 1
• adjective flat level, even, or without unevenness of surface, as land or tabletops. 1
• adjective flat having a surface that is without marked projections or depressions: a broad, flat face. 1
• adjective flat lying horizontally and at full length, as a person; prostrate: He was flat on the canvas after the knockdown. 1
• adjective flat lying wholly on or against something: The banner was flat against the wall. 1
• adjective flat thrown down, laid low, or level with the ground, as fallen trees or buildings. 1

Information block about the term

Origin of flat

First appearance:

before 1275

One of the 13% oldest English words

1275-1325; Middle English < Old Norse flatr, akin to Old English flet (see flat2), Greek platýs (see platy-, plate1

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Flat

flat popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 98% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between «mom» and «screwdriver».

Synonyms for flat

adj flat

• horizontal — at right angles to the vertical; parallel to level ground.
• unbroken — not broken; whole; intact.
• low — to utter by or as by lowing.
• plane — plane tree.
• pancake — a thin, flat cake of batter fried on both sides on a griddle or in a frying pan; griddlecake or flapjack.

noun flat

• suite — a number of things forming a series or set.
• tenement — Also called tenement house. a run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city.
• room — channel
• joint — the place at which two things, or separate parts of one thing, are joined or united, either rigidly or in such a way as to permit motion; juncture.
• pad — Packet Assembler/Disassembler

adjective flat

• even — Flat and smooth.
• smooth — free from projections or unevenness of surface; not rough: smooth wood; a smooth road.
• uniform — identical or consistent, as from example to example, place to place, or moment to moment: uniform spelling; a uniform building code.
• regular — usual; normal; customary: to put something in its regular place.
• empty — A container (esp. a bottle or glass) left empty of its contents.

adverb flat

• unmistakably — not mistakable; clear; obvious.
• no holds barred — to have or keep in the hand; keep fast; grasp: She held the purse in her right hand. He held the child’s hand in his.
• to a tee — the 20th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
• positively — with certainty; absolutely: The statement is positively true.
• horizontally — at right angles to the vertical; parallel to level ground.

verb flat

• go to bed — a piece of furniture upon which or within which a person sleeps, rests, or stays when not well.
• lay down — to put or place in a horizontal position or position of rest; set down: to lay a book on a desk.
• lie down — the manner, relative position, or direction in which something lies: the lie of the patio, facing the water. Synonyms: place, location, site.
• lying down — to be in a horizontal, recumbent, or prostrate position, as on a bed or the ground; recline. Antonyms: stand.
• lie — Jonas, 1880–1940, U.S. painter, born in Norway.

Antonyms for flat

adj flat

• uneven — not level or flat; rough; rugged: The wheels bumped and jolted over the uneven surface.
• rounded — having a flat, circular surface, as a disk.
• indefinite — not definite; without fixed or specified limit; unlimited: an indefinite number.
• upright — erect or vertical, as in position or posture.
• rough — having a coarse or uneven surface, as from projections, irregularities, or breaks; not smooth: rough, red hands; a rough road.

noun flat

• hogback — a long, sharply crested ridge, generally formed of steeply inclined strata that are especially resistant to erosion.
• pre-eminence — the state or character of being preeminent.
• levitation — the act or phenomenon of levitating.
• tumescence — swelling; slightly tumid.
• moraine — a ridge, mound, or irregular mass of unstratified glacial drift, chiefly boulders, gravel, sand, and clay.

adjective flat

• exciting — Causing great enthusiasm and eagerness.
• elevated — Situated or placed higher than the surrounding area.
• equivocal — Open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous.
• variable — apt or liable to vary or change; changeable: variable weather; variable moods.

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See also

• All definitions of flat
• Synonyms for flat
• Antonyms for flat
• Related words to flat
• Sentences with the word flat
• Words that rhyme with flat
• flat pronunciation
• The plural of flat
• The adjective of flat
• The past tense of flat

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• Words containing the letters f,l,a,t

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• Defenition of the word flat

  • Having a surface without slope nor variations in altitude.
  • A musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named.
  • A level tract of land.
  • Having lost effervescence.
  • Having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness.
  • Not modified or restricted by reservations.
  • Stretched out and lying at full length along the ground.
  • a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
  • lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting; «a bland little drama»; «a flat joke»
  • lacking taste or flavor or tang; «a bland diet»; «insipid hospital food»; «flavorless supermarket tomatoes»; «vapid beer»; «vapid tea»
  • not modified or restricted by reservations; «a categorical denial»; «a flat refusal»
  • (biology) flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)
  • in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly; «he didn’t answer directly»; «told me straight out»; «came out flat for less work and more pay»
  • lacking variety in shading; «a flat unshaded painting»
  • (of a tire) completely or partially deflated
  • having no depth or thickness
  • (photography) lacking contrast or shading between tones
  • parallel to the ground; «a flat roof»
  • (music) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone; «B flat»
  • having lost effervescence; «flat beer»; «a flat cola»
  • a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting
  • a shallow box in which seedlings are started
  • a notation indicating one half step lower than the note named
  • a level tract of land
  • wholly or completely; «He is flat broke»
  • at full length; «he fell flat on his face»
  • against a flat surface; «he lay flat on his back»
  • below the proper pitch; «she sang flat last night»
  • with flat sails; «sail flat against the wind»
  • not increasing as the amount taxed increases
  • a deflated pneumatic_tire
  • having a horizontal surface in which no part is higher or lower than another; «a flat desk»; «acres of level farmland»; «a plane surface»
  • not reflecting light; not glossy; «flat wall paint»; «a photograph with a matte finish»
  • stretched out and lying at full length along the ground; «found himself lying flat on the floor»
  • without pleats
  • not made with leavening; «most flat breads are made from unleavened dough»
  • without permanent sides or roof
  • lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth; «a film with two-dimensional characters»; «a flat two-dimensional painting»
  • scenery consisting of a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting
  • a deflated pneumatic tire
  • freight car without permanent sides or roof
  • a musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named
  • lacking contrast or shading between tones
  • lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone; «B flat»
  • flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)
  • in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly; «he didn»t answer directly»; «told me straight out»; «came out flat for less work and more pay»
  • commercially inactive
  • not reflecting light; not glossy
  • having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness
  • lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth
  • having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another
  • horizontally level
  • stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
  • sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch
  • (of a musical note) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone
  • not modified or restricted by reservations
  • having lost effervescence
  • lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting
  • lacking taste or flavor or tang
  • in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly
  • with flat sails

Synonyms for the word flat

• • absolute
  • absolutely
  • apartment
  • bland
  • boring
  • categoric
  • categorical
  • categorically
  • completely
  • compressed
  • directly
  • downright
  • dreary
  • dull
  • emphatic
  • emphatically
  • even
  • fixed
  • flat tire
  • flatcar
  • flatly
  • flavorless
  • flavourless
  • horizontal
  • insipid
  • invariable
  • level
  • lifeless
  • mat
  • matt
  • matte
  • matted
  • monotonous
  • non-negotiable
  • out-and-out
  • plane
  • preset
  • prostrate
  • puncture
  • savorless
  • set
  • smooth
  • straight
  • tedious
  • total
  • totally
  • two-dimensional
  • unconditional
  • unequivocal
  • unequivocally
  • unexciting
  • unpleated
  • unraised
  • utterly
  • vapid

Similar words in the flat

• • deflated
  • dull
  • even
  • flat
  • flat’s
  • flatbed
  • flatbeds
  • flatboat
  • flatboat’s
  • flatboats
  • flatcar
  • flatcar’s
  • flatcars
  • flatfeet
  • flatfish
  • flatfish’s
  • flatfishes
  • flatfoot
  • flatfoot’s
  • flatfooted
  • flatfooting
  • flatfoots
  • flatiron
  • flatiron’s
  • flatirons
  • flatly
  • flatness
  • flatness’s
  • flats
  • flatt
  • flatt’s
  • flatted
  • flatten
  • flattened
  • flattening
  • flattens
  • flatter
  • flattered
  • flatterer
  • flatterer’s
  • flatterers
  • flattering
  • flatteringly
  • flatters
  • flattery
  • flattery’s
  • flattest
  • flatting
  • flattop
  • flattop’s
  • flattops
  • flatulence
  • flatulence’s
  • flatulent
  • flatware
  • flatware’s
  • horizontal
  • multidimensional
  • noneffervescent
  • planar
  • regressive
  • tasteless
  • thin
  • two-dimensional
  • underdeveloped
  • unerect
  • unexciting
  • unfolded
  • unleavened
  • unqualified
  • unshaded
  • unstimulating

Meronymys for the word flat

• • apartment building
  • apartment house
  • kitchenette
  • mise en scene
  • setting
  • stage setting

Hyponyms for the word flat

• • alluvial flat
  • alluvial plain
  • bedsit
  • bedsitter
  • bedsitting room
  • cold-water flat
  • coulisse
  • double flat
  • duplex
  • duplex apartment
  • efficiency apartment
  • flatlet
  • maisonette
  • maisonnette
  • penthouse
  • railroad flat
  • rooms
  • salt flat
  • salt plain
  • studio
  • studio apartment
  • suite
  • teaser
  • tormenter
  • tormentor
  • walk-up
  • walk-up apartment
  • wing flat

Hypernyms for the word flat

• • box
  • champaign
  • field
  • freight car
  • housing
  • living accommodations
  • lodging
  • musical notation
  • plain
  • pneumatic tire
  • pneumatic tyre
  • scene
  • scenery

Antonyms for the word flat

• • contrasty
  • indirectly
  • natural
  • sharp

See other words

• • What is wig
  • The definition of barrister
  • The interpretation of the word hidden
  • What is meant by crop
  • The lexical meaning brush
  • The dictionary meaning of the word jail
  • The grammatical meaning of the word destroy
  • Meaning of the word break
  • Literal and figurative meaning of the word list
  • The origin of the word bribery
  • Synonym for the word admiration
  • Antonyms for the word another
  • Homonyms for the word animal
  • Hyponyms for the word lobby
  • Holonyms for the word gear
  • Hypernyms for the word commodity
  • Proverbs and sayings for the word common
  • Translation of the word in other languages experience

Princeton’s WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. flatnoun

   a level tract of land

   «the salt flats of Utah»

2. flatnoun

   a shallow box in which seedlings are started

3. flatnoun

   a musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named

4. flatcar, flatbed, flatnoun

   freight car without permanent sides or roof

5. flat, flat tirenoun

   a deflated pneumatic tire

6. flatnoun

   scenery consisting of a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting

7. apartment, flatadjective

   a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house

8. flat, level, planeadjective

   having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another

   «a flat desk»; «acres of level farmland»; «a plane surface»; «skirts sewn with fine flat seams»

9. flatadjective

   having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness

   «flat computer monitors»

10. categoric, categorical, flat, unconditionaladjective

    not modified or restricted by reservations

    «a categorical denial»; «a flat refusal»

11. flat, prostrateadjective

    stretched out and lying at full length along the ground

    «found himself lying flat on the floor»

12. flatadjective

    lacking contrast or shading between tones

13. flatadjective

    (of a musical note) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone

    «B flat»

14. compressed, flatadjective

    flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)

15. bland, flat, flavorless, flavourless, insipid, savorless, savourless, vapidadjective

    lacking taste or flavor or tang

    «a bland diet»; «insipid hospital food»; «flavorless supermarket tomatoes»; «vapid beer»; «vapid tea»

16. bland, flatadjective

    lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting

    «a bland little drama»; «a flat joke»

17. flatadjective

    having lost effervescence

    «flat beer»; «a flat cola»

18. flat, monotone, monotonic, monotonousadjective

    sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch

    «the owl’s faint monotonous hooting»

19. flatadjective

    horizontally level

    «a flat roof»

20. two-dimensional, 2-dimensional, flatadjective

    lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth

    «a film with two-dimensional characters»; «a flat two-dimensional painting»

21. flat, mat, matt, matte, mattedadjective

    not reflecting light; not glossy

    «flat wall paint»; «a photograph with a matte finish»

22. flatadverb

    commercially inactive

    «flat sales for the month»; «prices remained flat»; «a flat market»

23. flatadverb

    with flat sails

    «sail flat against the wind»

24. directly, flat, straightadverb

    in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly

    «he didn’t answer directly»; «told me straight out»; «came out flat for less work and more pay»

GCIDERate this definition:3.0 / 1 vote

1. Flatnoun

   (Arch.) A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself; an apartment taking up a whole floor. In this latter sense, the usage is more common in British English.

Samuel Johnson’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. FLATadjective

   Etymology: plat, French.

   1. Horizontally level without inclination.

   Thou all-shaking thunder,
   Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.
   William Shakespeare, K. Lear.

   The houses are flat roofed to walk upon, so that every bomb that fell on them would take effect.
   Joseph Addison, on Italy.

   2. Smooth; without protuberances.

   In the dawning of the next day we might plainly discern it was a land flat to our sight, and full of boscage.
   Francis Bacon.

   3. Without elevation.

   Cease t’ admire, and beauty’s plumes
   Fall flat, and shrink into a trivial toy,
   At every sudden slighting quite abasht.
   John Milton, Par. Lost.

   4. Level with the ground.

   In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
   What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,
   What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat.
   John Milton, Par. Reg.

   That Christ-church stands above ground, and that the church of Westminster lies not flat upon it, is your lordship’s commendation.
   South.

   5. Lying horizontally prostrate; lying along.

   The wood-born people fall before her flat,
   And worship her as goddess of the wood.
   Fairy Queen, b. i.

   That lamentable wound,
   Which laid that wretched prince flat on the ground.
   Daniel.

   6. [In painting.] Without relief; without prominence of the figures.7. Tasteless; insipid; dead.

   He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up
   The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece.
   William Shakespeare, Troil. and Cres.

   Taste so divine! that what of sweet before
   Hath touch’d my sense, flat seems to this and harsh.
   John Milton.

   The miry fields,
   Rejoicing in rich mold, most ample fruit
   Of beauteous form produce; pleasing to sight,
   But to the tongue inelegant and flat.
   Phillips.

   8. Dull; unanimated; frigid.

   Short speeches fly abroad like darts, and are thought to be shot out of secret intentions; but as for large discourses, they are flat things, and not so much noted.
   Francis Bacon, Essay 16.

   Some short excursions of a broken vow
   He made indeed, but flat insipid stuff.
   John Dryden, Don Sebastian.

   9. Depressed; spiritless; dejected.

   My hopes all flat, nature within me seems
   In all her functions weary of herself.
   John Milton, Agonistes.

   10. Unpleasing; tasteless.

   How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
   Seem to me all the uses of this world!
   William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

   To one firmly persuaded of the reality of heavenly happiness, and earnestly desirous of obtaining it, all earthly satisfactions must needs look little, and grow flat and unsavoury.
   Francis Atterbury, Sermons.

   11. Peremptory; absolute; downright.

   His horse with flat tiring taught him, that discrete stays make speedy journeys.
   Philip Sidney.

   It is a flat wrong to punish the thought or purpose of any before it be enacted; for true justice punisheth nothing but the evil act or wicked word.
   Edmund Spenser, State of Ireland.

   As it is in the nature of all men to love liberty, so they become flat libertines, and fall to all licentiousness.
   Edmund Spenser.

   You start away,
   And lend no ear unto my purposes;
   Those prisoners you shall keep:
   ———— I will, that’s flat.
   William Shakespeare, Henry IV. p.i.

   Thus repuls’d, our final hope
   Is flat despair: we must exasperate
   Th’ Almighty Victor to spend all his rage,
   And that must end us.
   John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. ii.

   If thou sin in wine or wantonness,
   Boast not thereof, nor make thy shame thy glory;
   Frailty gets pardon by submissiveness:
   But he that boasts, shuts that out of his story:
   He makes flat war with God, and doth defy
   With his meer clod of earth the spacious sky.
   George Herbert.

   You had broke and robb’d his house,
   And stole his talismanique louse;
   And all his new-found old inventions,
   With flat felonious intentions.
   Hudibras, p. iii. cant. 1.

   12. Not shrill; not acute; not sharp in sound.

   If you stop the holes of a hawk’s bell it will make no ring, but a flat noise or rattle.
   Francis Bacon, Natural History.

   The upper end of the windpipe is endued with several cartilages and muscles to contract or dilate it, as we would have our voice flat or sharp.
   John Ray, on the Creation.

2. Flatnoun

   1. A level; an extended plane.

   The strings of a lute, viol, or virginals, give a far greater sound, by reason of the knot, board and concave underneath, than if there were nothing but only the flat of a board to let in the upper air into the lower.
   Francis Bacon, Nat. Hist.

   Because the air receiveth great tincture from the earth, expose flesh or fish, both upon a stake of wood some height above the earth, and upon the flat of the earth.
   Francis Bacon, Nat. Hist.

   It comes near an artificial miracle to make divers distinct eminences appear a flat by force of shadows, and yet the shadows themselves not to appear.
   Henry Wotton, Architecture.

   He has cut the side of the rock into a flat for a garden; and by laying on it the waste earth, that he has found in several of the neighbouring parts, furnished out a kind of luxury for a hermit.
   Joseph Addison, on Italy.

   2. Even ground; not mountainous.

   Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
   ’Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
   T’ o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
   Of blue Olympus.
   William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

   The way is ready and not long,
   Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
   Fast by a mountain.
   John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. ix.

   3. A smooth low ground exposed to inundations.

   The ocean, overpeering of his list,
   Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,
   Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
   O’erbears your officers.
   William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

   All the infections, that the sun sucks up
   From bogs, fens, flats, on Prospero fall.
   William Shakespeare, Tempest.

   Half my pow’rs this night,
   Passing these flats, are taken by the tide;
   These Lincoln washes have devoured them.
   William Shakespeare, K. John.

   4. Shallow; strand; place in the sea where the water is not deep enough for ships.

   I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,
   But I should think of shallows and of flats.
   William Shakespeare.

   The difficulty is very great to bring them in or out through so many flats and sands, if wind and weather be not very favourable.
   Walter Raleigh, Essays.

   Having newly left these grammatick flats and shallows, where they stuck unreasonably, to learn a few words with lamentable constructions, we are now on the sudden turmoiled with their unballasted wits in fathomless and unquiet deeps of controversy.
   John Milton, on Education.

   Full in the prince’s passage hills of sand,
   And dang’rous flats, in secret ambush lay,
   Where the false tides skim o’er the cover’d land,
   And seamen with dissembled depths betray.
   Dryden.

   The sea could not be narrower than it is, without a great loss to the world; and must we now have an ocean of mere flats and shallows, to the utter ruin of navigation?
   Richard Bentley.

   5. The broad side of a blade.

   A darted mandate came
   From that great will which moves this mighty frame,
   Bid me to thee, my royal charge, repair,
   To guard thee from the dæmons of the air;
   My flaming sword above ’em to display,
   All keen and ground upon the edge of day,
   The flat to sweep the visions from thy mind,
   The edge to cut ’em through that stay behind.
   Dryden.

   6. Depression of thought or language.

   John Milton’s Paradise Lost is admirable; but am I therefore bound to maintain, that there are no flats amongst his elevations, when ’tis evident he creeps along sometimes for above an hundred lines together?
   Dryden.

   7. A surface without relief, or prominences.

   Are there then such ravishing charms in a dull unvaried flat, to make a sufficient compensation for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills.
   Richard Bentley, Sermons.

3. To Flatverb

   Etymology: from the noun.

   1. To level; to depress; to make broad and smooth.

   The ancients say, if you take two twigs of several fruit-trees, and flat them on the sides, and bind them close, and set them in the ground, they will come up in one stock.
   Francis Bacon.

   With horrid shapes she does her sons expose,
   Distends their swelling lips, and flats their nose.
   Thomas Creech.

   2. To make vapid.

   An orange, lemon and apple, wrapt in a linen cloth, being buried for a fortnight four foot deep within the earth, though in a moist place and rainy time, were become a little harder than they were; otherwise fresh in their colour, but their juice somewhat flatted.
   Francis Bacon, Natural History, №. 377.

4. To Flatverb

   1. To grow flat: opposed to swell.

   I burnt it the second time, and observed the skin shrink, and the swelling to flat yet more than at first.
   William Temple.

   2. To obstruct; retard; hinder; to render unanimated or evanid.

   Nor are constant forms of prayer more likely to flat and hinder the spirit of prayer and devotion, than unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it.
   Charles I .

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. flat

   A Flat is a Hindi thriller film, directed by Hemant Madhukar and produced by Anjum Rizvi.The film was released on 12 November 2010 under the Anjum Rizvi Film Company and Y.T Entertainment Ltd. banners.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Flat

   having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane

2. Flat

   lying at full length, or spread out, upon the ground; level with the ground or earth; prostrate; as, to lie flat on the ground; hence, fallen; laid low; ruined; destroyed

3. Flat

   wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest

4. Flat

   tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as, fruit or drink flat to the taste

5. Flat

   unanimated; dull; uninteresting; without point or spirit; monotonous; as, a flat speech or composition

6. Flat

   lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, the market is flat

7. Flat

   clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright

8. Flat

   below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; A flat

9. Flat

   not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound

10. Flat

    sonant; vocal; — applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant

11. Flatadverb

    in a flat manner; directly; flatly

12. Flatadverb

    without allowance for accrued interest

13. Flatnoun

    a level surface, without elevation, relief, or prominences; an extended plain; specifically, in the United States, a level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats

14. Flatnoun

    a level tract lying at little depth below the surface of water, or alternately covered and left bare by the tide; a shoal; a shallow; a strand

15. Flatnoun

    something broad and flat in form

16. Flatnoun

    a flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught

17. Flatnoun

    a straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned

18. Flatnoun

    a car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car

19. Flatnoun

    a platform on wheel, upon which emblematic designs, etc., are carried in processions

20. Flatnoun

    the flat part, or side, of anything; as, the broad side of a blade, as distinguished from its edge

21. Flatnoun

    a floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself

22. Flatnoun

    a horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal

23. Flatnoun

    a dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull

24. Flatnoun

    a character [/] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower

25. Flatnoun

    a homaloid space or extension

26. Flatverb

    to make flat; to flatten; to level

27. Flatverb

    to render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress

28. Flatverb

    to depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone

29. Flatverb

    to become flat, or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface

30. Flatverb

    to fall form the pitch

FreebaseRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Flat

   In music, flat, or Bemolle, means «lower in pitch»; the flat symbol lowers a note by a half step. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously. More specifically, in music notation, flat means, «lower in pitch by a semitone,» and has an associated symbol, which is a stylised lowercase «b» that may be found in key signatures or as an accidental, as may sharps. The Unicode character ♭ is the flat sign. Its HTML entity is ♭.
   Under twelve tone equal temperament, C flat for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B natural, and G flat is the same as F sharp. In any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents.
   Double flats also exist, which look like and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats. The Unicode character ‘

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Flat

   flat, adj. smooth: level: wanting points of prominence and interest: monotonous: vapid, insipid: dejected: unqualified, positive: (mus.) opposite of sharp.—n. a level plain: a tract covered by shallow water: something broad: a story or floor of a house, esp. when fitted up as a separate residence for a family: a simpleton, a gull: (mus.) a character (♭) which lowers a note a semitone.—ns. Flat′boat, a large flat-bottomed boat for floating goods down the Mississippi, &c.; Flat′-fish, a name applied to marine bony fishes that have a flat body, such as the flounder, turbot, &c.—adj. Flat′-foot′ed, having flat feet: resolute.—adj. and n. Flat′-head, having an artificially flattened head, as some American Indians of the Chinooks—the name is officially but incorrectly applied to the Selish Indians in particular.—n. Flat′-ī′ron, an iron for smoothing cloth.—advs. Flat′ling, Flat′long (Spens., Shak.), with the flat side down: not edgewise; Flat′ly.—ns. Flat′ness; Flat′-race, a race over open or clear ground.—v.t. Flat′ten, to make flat.—v.i. to become flat.—n. Flat′ting, a mode of house-painting in which the paint is left without gloss.—adj. Flat′tish, somewhat flat.—adj. or adv. Flat′wise, flatways, or with the flat side downward.—n. Flat′-worm, a tapeworm. [From a Teut. root found in Ice. flatr, flat, Sw. flat, Dan. flad, Old High Ger. flaz.]

The New Hacker’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. flat

   1. [common] Lacking any complex internal structure. “That
   bitty box has only a flat filesystem, not a
   hierarchical one.” The verb form is flatten.
   2. Said of a memory architecture (like that of the
   VAX or 680×0) that is one big linear address space
   (typically with each possible value of a processor register corresponding
   to a unique core address), as opposed to a segmented architecture (like that of the 80×86)
   in which addresses are composed from a base-register/offset pair (segmented
   designs are generally considered cretinous).Note that sense 1 (at least with respect to filesystems) is usually
   used pejoratively, while sense 2 is a
   Good Thing.

The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon WurdzRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. FLAT

   A series of padded cells, commonly found in cities, in which are confined harmless monomaniacs who imagine Home to be a Sardine Box.

Dictionary of Nautical TermsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. flat

   In ship-building, a straight part in a curve. In hydrography, a
   shallow over which the tide flows, and over the whole extent of which
   there is little or no variation of soundings. If less than three
   fathoms, it is called shoal or shallow.

Matched Categories

1. • Box
   • Freight Car
   • Music
   • Musical Notation
   • Photography
   • Plain
   • Pneumatic Tire
   • Scenery

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘flat’ in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2329

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘flat’ in Written Corpus Frequency: #1460

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘flat’ in Nouns Frequency: #715

4. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘flat’ in Adjectives Frequency: #356

How to pronounce flat?

How to say flat in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of flat in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of flat in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of flat in a Sentence

1. Chuck Carlson:

   Today we’ve got a situation where we’ve got a flat market, which would indicate that markets are comfortable with earnings and that expectations had risen given the rally going into the earnings season.

2. Van Hollen:

   As seen in these documents, OMB provided incomplete responses and The White House flat out refused.

3. Miguel Cardona:

   It means using all your political capital to have the one-on-one conversations with your mayors and with your governors about the negative impact that flat funding will get us in our schools.

4. Rick Perry:

   I think it falls flat in the face of the American people when it comes to, are you going to trust an individual who has taken that much money from a foreign source? Where’s your loyalty?

5. Monica Hopkins:

   We are a city that deals with mass demonstrations all the time, for any law enforcement agency in this city to say they were caught flat-footed or they didn’t know what was coming is just incredibly false.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for flat

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

• mol, platkant, plat, pap, eentonigAfrikaans
• مسطحArabic
• düzAzerbaijani
• роўны, плоскіBelarusian
• бемол, плоско, точно, равнина, изцяло, плоскост, спаднал, изветрял, плосък, равен, безинтересенBulgarian
• সমতলBengali
• punxada, avaria, bemoll, pla, xatoCatalan, Valencian
• rovný, prasklý, plochýCzech
• jævnt, helt, flade, flad, dødDanish
• total, Platten, flach, völlig, eben, Reifenpanne, pauschal, vollkommen, direkt, platt, flau, glatt, schalGerman
• ύφεση, χωρίς τακούνι, νεκρός, επίπεδος, άτονος, ξεθυμασμένος, ισόπεδος, ξεφούσκωτος, ανούσιοςGreek
• bemolaEsperanto
• llano, chato, plano, sin gasSpanish
• tühi, lapik, lameEstonian
• laun, lau, ordekaBasque
• هامون, هموار, صاف, پنچر, مسطحPersian
• tylysti, nuotti, lape, talttasivellin, täysin, tasaisesti, kokonaan, rengas, tasan, kengät, tasanko, täsmälleen, tasanne, ropponen, alavireinen, tasainen, lattea, monotoninen, litteä, tyhjä, väljähtynyt, laakea, tylsä, puhjennut, alennettuFinnish
• pile, bémol, plan, grave, plat, crevé, ennuyeux, dégonflé, bas, plate, à platFrench
• rodta, cothromIrish
• maolScottish Gaelic
• plano, chairo, chanGalician
• שטוחHebrew
• समतलHindi
• laposHungarian
• հարթ, տափակArmenian
• rata, pipih, datar, kempes, habisIndonesian
• scarpe senza tacco, ballerine, bemolle, a terra, sgasata, piano, bucata, monotòno, piatto, sgonfioItalian
• パンク, パンクする, 平らJapanese
• жазық, жалпак, жайпақKazakh
• រាបស្មើ, រាបទាបKhmer
• 평평, 하다, 판판하다, 平平Korean
• жалпакKyrgyz
• plokščias, lėkštasLithuanian
• plakana virsma, lēzeni, kurpes bez papēžiem, plakani, bemols, plakans, lēzensLatvian
• parahe, tūpā, pātiki, kenu, haukore, pongareMāori
• рамно, издишана, рамен, бемолMacedonian
• सपाटMarathi
• datarMalay
• platte band, mol, bemol, lekke band, plat, verschaald, lek, vlakDutch
• monoton, dødt, doven, flat, -esNorwegian
• ditʼąhNavajo, Navaho
• bemol, but, płasko, flak, wyczerpany, wygazowany, za, zwietrzały, sflaczały, równy, monotonny, nijaki, flakowaty, niski, bezbarwny, płaski, odgazowanyPolish
• [[pneu]] [[murcho]], planura, diretamente, bemol, murcho, raso, plano, [[sem]] [[gás]], chato, monótono, descarregado, vazioPortuguese
• platRomansh
• neted, monotonă, plat, monoton, șes, planRomanian
• бемоль, прокол, плоскость, пологий, ровный, плоскийRussian
• pranuSardinian
• snizilica, раван, ravanSerbo-Croatian
• plochý, rovnýSlovak
• monoton, gorjenje, nezanimivo, raven, bemol, spuščena, basSlovene
• rrafshtë, rrafshët, bemolAlbanian
• jämnt, blankt, punka, helt, platt, helt och hållet, lågklackad, totalt, punktering, punkterad, sänkt, död, monoton, avslagen, plan, falsk, flatSwedish
• పెరగని, పూర్తిగా, మొద్దుబారిన, చదునైన, అరిగిన, బల్లపరుపు, ఆసక్తి లేని, అశక్తతTelugu
• мусаттаҳTajik
• เรียบThai
• düzTurkmen
• düzTurkish
• плоский, рівний, пологийUkrainian
• silliq, sidirgʻa, tekisUzbek
• bằng, phẳngVietnamese

Get even more translations for flat »

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look up flat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Flat or flats may refer to:

Architecture[edit]

• Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries

Arts and entertainment[edit]

• Flat (music), a symbol (♭) which denotes a lower pitch
• Flat (soldier), a two-dimensional toy soldier made of tin or plastic
• Flat (theatre), a flat piece of theatrical scenery
• Flat, a leading type of wordplay, as identified by the National Puzzlers’ League
• Flat! (2010), an Indian film
• Flats (band), an English band
• Flats (comics), the first stage in the comic coloring process

Footwear[edit]

• Flats, footwear which is not high-heeled
• Ballet flats, derived from ballet shoes, for casual wear as well as dancing
• Ballet shoes (also known as ballet slippers), often referred to as «flats» or «flat shoes»
• Racing flats, lightweight shoes used primarily for running a race

Geography[edit]

Landforms[edit]

• Flat (landform), a relatively level area within a region of greater relief

Bodies of water[edit]

• Flat, a shallow water area in the context of boating, fishing or marine biology, often used in plural form
  • Brewster Flats, an area of Cape Cod Bay off the shore of Massachusetts, U.S.
  • Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm, off the coast of Kent, England
  • Rhyl Flats, a wind farm off the coast of North Wales
• Flat coast, a shoreline where the land descends gradually into the sea

Places[edit]

United States[edit]

• Flat, Alaska, a census-designated place
• Flat, Kentucky, an unincorporated community
• Flat, Missouri, an unincorporated community
• Flat, Texas, an unincorporated community
• Flat Brook, a tributary of the Delaware River in Sussex County, New Jersey
• Flats, Nebraska, United States
• Flats, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
• Forest Lake Area Trail System, Missouri

Other[edit]

• Flat, Puy-de-Dôme, a commune in the French region of Auvergne
• Flat Island (disambiguation), in various places
• Flat Islands (disambiguation), in Canada and Antarctica
• Flat River (disambiguation), in the United States and Canada

Mathematics and geometry[edit]

• Flatness (mathematics), of a surface
• Flat (geometry), the generalization of lines and planes in an n-dimensional Euclidean space
• Flat (matroids), a further generalization of flats from linear algebra to the context of matroids
• Flat module in ring theory
• Flat morphism in algebraic geometry
• Flat space, a space with zero curvature
• Flat sign, for its use in mathematics; see musical isomorphism, mapping vectors to covectors

People[edit]

Nickname[edit]

• Earl «Flat» Chase (1910–1954), Canadian baseball player
• Flat Walsh (1897–1959), Canadian ice hockey goaltender

Fictional characters[edit]

• Flat Eric, a character in some Levi’s commercials
• Flat Stanley, namesake of an American children’s book series

Groups[edit]

• FLATS or First Lady Astronaut Trainees, American women who underwent NASA Project Mercury physiological screening tests

Other uses[edit]

• Flat (gridiron football), the area of the gridiron football field
• Flat butterflies or flats, certain skipper butterfly genera in subfamily Pyrginae:
  • Calleagris (scarce flats),
  • Celaenorrhinus of tribe Celaenorrhinini;
  • Eagris, and
  • Tagiades (water flats, snow flats), of tribe Tagiadini
• Flats (USPS), an oversized letter
• Optical flat, an extremely flat piece of glass

See also[edit]

• All pages with titles beginning with Flat
• All pages with titles containing Flat
• The Flat (disambiguation), including «The Flats»
• Flatten (disambiguation)
• Flattening
• Flatness (disambiguation)