flint
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
flintIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈflɪnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
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.
figurative
Anything figuratively hard.
A number of places in the United States
verb
transitive
To furnish or decorate an object with flint.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This 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.
Used this way, flint is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use flint
- “Long ago, people used flint to make sparks and start fires for cooking and warmth.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.