flint
Meaning
-
- 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.
- A piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark by striking it with a firestriker.
- A small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
- A type of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
- Anything figuratively hard.
Synonyms
flint stone
flint for lighter
stone knife
spark producer
lighter flint
flintrock
fire stone
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/flɪnt/
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.
Bookmark this
Improve your pronunciation
Start learning English with learnfeliz.
Practice speaking and memorizing "flint" and many other words and sentences in English.
Go to our English course page
Notes