FLATNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does flatness mean? 

• FLATNESS (noun)
  The noun FLATNESS has 5 senses:

1. the property of having two dimensions

2. a want of animation or brilliance

3. a deficiency in flavor

4. the property of having little or no contrast; lacking highlights or gloss

5. inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy

  Familiarity information: FLATNESS used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLATNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of having two dimensions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

flatness; planeness; two-dimensionality

Hypernyms ("flatness" is a kind of...):

dimensionality (the spatial property of having dimensions)

Derivation:

flat (having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness)

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

A want of animation or brilliance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the almost self-conscious flatness of Hemingway's style

Hypernyms ("flatness" is a kind of...):

expressive style; style (a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period)

Derivation:

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

flat (sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch)

flat (lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A deficiency in flavor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

it needed lemon juice to sharpen the flatness of the dried lentils

Hypernyms ("flatness" is a kind of...):

gustatory perception; gustatory sensation; taste; taste perception; taste sensation (the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus)

Derivation:

flat (lacking taste or flavor or tang)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The property of having little or no contrast; lacking highlights or gloss

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

flatness; lusterlessness; lustrelessness; mat; matt; matte

Hypernyms ("flatness" is a kind of...):

dullness (a lack of visual brightness)

Derivation:

flat (not reflecting light; not glossy)

flat (lacking contrast or shading between tones)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

flatness; languor; lethargy; phlegm; sluggishness

Context example:

the general appearance of sluggishness alarmed his friends

Hypernyms ("flatness" is a kind of...):

inactiveness; inactivity; inertia (a disposition to remain inactive or inert)

 Context examples 

I laughed, and replied that I saw no suitable profession in the whole prospect; which was perhaps to be attributed to its flatness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Catherine was ashamed to say how pretty she thought it, as the general seemed to think an apology necessary for the flatness of the country, and the size of the village; but in her heart she preferred it to any place she had ever been at, and looked with great admiration at every neat house above the rank of a cottage, and at all the little chandler's shops which they passed.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He then began to find fault with other parts of my body: the flatness of my face, the prominence of my nose, mine eyes placed directly in front, so that I could not look on either side without turning my head: that I was not able to feed myself, without lifting one of my fore-feet to my mouth: and therefore nature had placed those joints to answer that necessity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts—when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break—at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent—I am ever tender and true.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)