| English Dictionary |
FLAT (flatted, flatter, flattest, flatting)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, flatter , flattest , flatting Dictionary entry overview: What does flat mean?
• FLAT (noun)
The noun FLAT has 7 senses:
1. a level tract of land
2. a shallow box in which seedlings are started
3. a musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named
4. freight car without permanent sides or roof
5. a deflated pneumatic tire
6. scenery consisting of a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting
7. a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
Familiarity information: FLAT used as a noun is common.
• FLAT (adjective)
The adjective FLAT has 15 senses:
1. having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another
2. having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness
3. not modified or restricted by reservations
4. stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
5. lacking contrast or shading between tones
6. (of a musical note) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone
7. flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)
8. lacking taste or flavor or tang
9. lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting
10. having lost effervescence
11. sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch
12. horizontally level
13. lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth
14. not reflecting light; not glossy
15. commercially inactive
Familiarity information: FLAT used as an adjective is familiar.
• FLAT (adverb)
The adverb FLAT has 2 senses:
1. with flat sails
2. in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly
Familiarity information: FLAT used as an adverb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A level tract of land
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Context example:
the salt flats of Utah
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
champaign; field; plain (extensive tract of level open land)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flat"):
alluvial flat; alluvial plain (a flat resulting from repeated deposits of alluvial material by running water)
salt flat; salt plain (a flat expanse of salt left by the evaporation of a body of salt water)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A shallow box in which seedlings are started
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
box (a (usually rectangular) container; may have a lid)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
musical notation ((music) notation used by musicians)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flat"):
double flat (a musical notation of two flats in front of a note indicating that it is to be lowered by two semitones)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Freight car without permanent sides or roof
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
freight car (a railway car that carries freight)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A deflated pneumatic tire
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
flat; flat tire
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
pneumatic tire; pneumatic tyre (a tire made of reinforced rubber and filled with compressed air; used on motor vehicles and bicycles etc)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Scenery consisting of a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
scene; scenery (the painted structures of a stage set that are intended to suggest a particular locale)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flat"):
coulisse; wing flat (a flat situated in the wings)
teaser; tormenter; tormentor (a flat at each side of the stage to prevent the audience from seeing into the wings)
Holonyms ("flat" is a part of...):
mise en scene; setting; stage setting (arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted)
Sense 7
Meaning:
A suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
apartment; flat
Hypernyms ("flat" is a kind of...):
housing; living accommodations; lodging (structures collectively in which people are housed)
Meronyms (parts of "flat"):
kitchenette (small kitchen)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flat"):
bedsit; bedsitter; bedsitting room (a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing))
walk-up; walk-up apartment (an apartment in a building without an elevator)
rooms; suite (apartment consisting of a series of connected rooms used as a living unit (as in a hotel))
studio; studio apartment (an apartment with a living space and a bathroom and a small kitchen)
railroad flat (an apartment whose rooms are all in a line with doors between them)
penthouse (an apartment located on the top floors of a building)
maisonette; maisonnette (a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a larger house and with its own entrance from the outside)
flatlet (a tiny flat)
efficiency apartment (a furnished apartment with a kitchenette and bathroom)
duplex; duplex apartment (an apartment having rooms on two floors that are connected by a staircase)
cold-water flat (an apartment without modern conveniences)
Holonyms ("flat" is a part of...):
apartment building; apartment house (a building that is divided into apartments)
Derivation:
flatlet (a tiny flat)
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: flattest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another
Synonyms:
Context example:
skirts sewn with fine flat seams
Similar:
even (being level or straight or regular and without variation as e.g. in shape or texture; or being in the same plane or at the same height as something else (i.e. even with))
Derivation:
flatness (the property of having two dimensions)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness
Context example:
flat computer monitors
Similar:
planar; two-dimensional (involving or having two dimensions)
Derivation:
flatness (the property of having two dimensions)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not modified or restricted by reservations
Synonyms:
categoric; categorical; flat; unconditional
Context example:
a flat refusal
Similar:
unqualified (not limited or restricted)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
Synonyms:
flat; prostrate
Context example:
found himself lying flat on the floor
Similar:
unerect (not upright in position or posture)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Lacking contrast or shading between tones
Domain category:
photography; picture taking (the act of taking and printing photographs)
Antonym:
contrasty (having sharp differences between black and white)
Derivation:
flatness (the property of having little or no contrast; lacking highlights or gloss)
Sense 6
Meaning:
(of a musical note) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone
Context example:
B flat
Domain category:
music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)
Antonym:
natural ((of a musical note) being neither raised nor lowered by one chromatic semitone)
sharp ((of a musical note) raised in pitch by one chromatic semitone)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)
Synonyms:
compressed; flat
Similar:
thin (of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section)
Domain category:
biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)
Derivation:
flatness (the property of having two dimensions)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Lacking taste or flavor or tang
Synonyms:
bland; flat; flavorless; flavourless; insipid; savorless; savourless; vapid
Context example:
vapid tea
Similar:
tasteless (lacking flavor)
Derivation:
flatness (a deficiency in flavor)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting
Synonyms:
bland; flat
Context example:
a flat joke
Similar:
unexciting; unstimulating (not stimulating)
Derivation:
flatness (a want of animation or brilliance)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Having lost effervescence
Context example:
a flat cola
Similar:
noneffervescent (not effervescent)
Sense 11
Meaning:
Sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch
Synonyms:
flat; monotone; monotonic; monotonous
Context example:
the owl's faint monotonous hooting
Similar:
unmodulated (characterized by lack of variation in pitch, tone, or volume)
Derivation:
flatness (a want of animation or brilliance)
Sense 12
Meaning:
Horizontally level
Context example:
a flat roof
Similar:
horizontal (parallel to or in the plane of the horizon or a base line)
Sense 13
Meaning:
Lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth
Synonyms:
2-dimensional; flat; two-dimensional
Context example:
a flat two-dimensional painting
Similar:
multidimensional (having or involving or marked by several dimensions or aspects)
Derivation:
flatness (a want of animation or brilliance)
Sense 14
Meaning:
Not reflecting light; not glossy
Synonyms:
flat; mat; matt; matte; matted
Context example:
a photograph with a matte finish
Similar:
dull (emitting or reflecting very little light)
Derivation:
flatness (the property of having little or no contrast; lacking highlights or gloss)
Sense 15
Meaning:
Commercially inactive
Context example:
a flat market
Similar:
inactive ((pathology) not progressing or increasing; or progressing slowly)
Sense 1
Meaning:
With flat sails
Context example:
sail flat against the wind
Sense 2
Meaning:
In a forthright manner; candidly or frankly
Synonyms:
Context example:
came out flat for less work and more pay
Context examples
He tries this on very much with me, but I flatter myself he has got a tough nut to crack.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It is composed of a wide, flat bundle of 200-250 million axonal projections.
(Corpus Callosum, NCI Thesaurus)
A flat, circular shaped form composed of a solid or powder that contains active and/or inert ingredient(s).
(Disc Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus)
A flat circular plate or anything with a similar shape.
(Disc Shape, NCI Thesaurus)
A flat dish type device with multiple wells for testing cellular material.
(Microwell Plate, NCI Thesaurus)
A flat rotating disk designed for data storage.
(Computer Disc, NCI Thesaurus)
They are thin, flat cells that look like fish scales under a microscope.
(Cervical squamous cell carcinoma, NCI Dictionary)
We ran down the flying jib, hauled the jib-sheets to wind-ward and the main-sheet flat, and came up into the wind.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The straight, harsh, double coat lies flat.
(Canaan Dog, NCI Thesaurus)
Look to the right, and you'll see a flat country, with a good deal of marsh in it; look to the left, and you'll see the same.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Who stays under the tree, eats its fruits." (Albanian proverb)
"Send a wise man and don't advise him." (Arabic proverb)
"Empty barrels make more noise." (Danish proverb)