flat

Meanings

Adjective

• Having no variations in height.
• Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.
• Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.
• Lowered by one semitone.
• Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.
• Absolute; downright; peremptory.
• Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
• With all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
• Lacking acidity without being sweet.
• Unable to emit power; dead.
• Without spin; spinless.
• sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant
• 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".
• Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft.
• Flattening at the ends.
• Exact.

Adverb

• So as to be flat.
• Bluntly.
• Exactly, precisely.
• Completely.
• Directly; flatly.
• Without allowance for accrued interest.

Noun

• An area of level ground.
• 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. ♭♪).
• A flat tyre/flat tire.
• A type of ladies' shoe with a very low heel.
• A type of flat-soled running shoe without spikes.
• A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolour painting.
• The flat part of something:
• A wide, shallow container or pallet.
• A large mail piece measuring at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches, such as catalogs, magazines, and unfolded paper enclosed in large envelopes.
• A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
• A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
• A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
• A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
• A flat sheet for use on a bed.
• A flat, glossy children's book with few pages.
• A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
• A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
• A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan, or muslin that depicts a building or other part of a scene, also called backcloth and backdrop.
• Any of various hesperiid butterflies that spread their wings open when they land.
• An early kind of toy soldier having a flat design.
• A dull fellow; a simpleton.
• A flat (i.e. plane) mirror
• An apartment, usually on one level and usually consisting of more than one room.

Verb

• To make a flat call; to call without raising.
• To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
• To fall from the pitch.
• To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
• To make flat; to flatten; to level.
• To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
• To beat or strike; pound
• To dash or throw
• To dash, rush

Related

Similar words

• even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform
• monotone
• deflated, punctured
• flabby
• bluntly, curtly
• tops
• absolutely, completely, utterly
• apartment

Opposite words

• bumpy, cratered, hilly , rough , wrinkled
• sharp
• high heels

Origin

• From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (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, Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् ("extension"). plat, and pleyt.
• The noun is from Middle English flat, from the adjective.
• From 1795, alteration of Scots flet ("inner part of a house"), from Middle English flet ("dwelling"), from Old English flet, flett, from Proto-Germanic *flatją ("floor"), from Proto-Germanic *flataz ("flat"), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ("flat"). Akin to Old Frisian flet ("dwelling, house"). More at flet, flat.
• From Middle English flatten, from Old French flatir, from Frankish *flattjan, from Proto-Germanic *flatjaną.