flint

See also: Flint

English

Etymology

From Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Middle Dutch vlint, Old High German flins, Danish flint), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *splind- (“to split, cleave”) (compare Irish slinn (“slate, shingle”), Ancient Greek πλίνθος (plínthos)), from *(s)plei- (“to split”). More at split.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɪnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnt

Noun

flint (countable and uncountable, plural flints)

1. A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck.
2. A piece of flint, such as a gunflint, used to produce a spark.
3. A small cylinder of some other material of the same function in a cigarette lighter, etc.
4. A type of maize/corn with a hard outer hull.
5. (figurative) Anything figuratively hard.

Derived terms

• flintiness
• flinty
• gunflint
• semiflint

Translations

hard fine-grained quartz which generates sparks when struck

• Arabic: صَوَّان m (ṣawwān), ظُرَر m (ẓurar), قَدَّاح m (qaddāḥ)
• Armenian: կայծքար (hy) (kayckʻar)
• Bashkir: саҡматаш (saqmataş)
• Bulgarian: кремък (bg) m (kremǎk)
• Catalan: sílex
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 燧石 (zh) (suìshí)

• Czech: pazourek (cs) m
• Danish: ildsten, flint (da) c
• Dutch: vuursteen (nl) n, keisteen (nl) m
• Faroese: tinna f
• Finnish: piikivi (fi)
• French: silex (fr) m
• Galician: sílex m
• German: Feuerstein (de) m, Silex
• Greek:

  Cappadocian:

• Gujarati: ચકમક (cakmak)
• Hindi: चक़मक़ m or f (caqmaq), चकमक (hi) m (cakmak)
• Hungarian: kovakő (hu)
• Icelandic: tinna f
• Italian: selce (it)
• Japanese: 燧石 (ひうちいし, hiuchiishi, すいせき, suiseki)
• Korean: 플린트 (peullinteu), 수석 (ko) (suseok) (燧石 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بەردەستێ (berdestê), کوچکاوْر (kuçkawir)

  Northern Kurdish: berheste (ku)

• Latgalian: kroms
• Latin: silex (la)
• Latvian: krams
• Lithuanian: titnagas
• Macedonian: кремен m (kremen), белутрак m (belutrak)
• Maori: paea
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Nahuatl: tecpatl (nah)
• Navajo: béésh
• Nepali: चकमक (ne) (cakamak)
• Newar: च्वल्वहं (cwalwahaṃ)
• Norman: pièrre à feu f
• Norwegian: flint
• Occitan: pèira de fòc f, silèx (oc) m, pèira frejal f, pèira selze f
• Old English: flint m
• Old Norse: tinna f
• Persian: خارا (fa) (xârâ)
• Polish: krzemień (pl) m, krzemyk m
• Portuguese: sílex (pt)
• Romanian: silex (ro), cremene (ro) n
• Russian: креме́нь (ru) m (kreménʹ)
• Saanich: qentoles
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кре̏ме̄н m

  Latin: krȅmēn (sh) m

• Slovak: silicit, rohovec, pazúrik (sk), flint, buližník
• Slovene: kremen (sl)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kśemjeń m

  Upper Sorbian: křemjeń m

• Spanish: pedernal (es) m, sílex
• Swedish: flinta (sv)
• Tagalog: panting
• Telugu: కిమిడి (kimiḍi)
• Thai: หินเหล็กไฟ (hǐn-lèk-fai), หินไฟ (hǐn-fai)
• Ukrainian: кре́мінь m (kréminʹ)
• Vietnamese: đá lửa (vi)
• Volapük: flintoin (vo)
• Welsh: callestr (cy) m or f, fflint (cy) m or f
• Yiddish: פֿײַערשטיינ m (fayershteyn), קיזלשטיינ‎‎ m (kizlshteyn)

piece of flint, such as gunflint used to produce a spark

• Arabic: صَوَّانَة m (ṣawwāna), ظِرّ m (ẓirr), ظُرَرَة f (ẓurara), قَدَّاحَة f (qaddāḥa)
• Bashkir: саҡматаш (saqmataş)
• Catalan: pedrenyal m, pedrenyera f, pedra foguera f
• Czech: pazourek (cs) m
• Danish: flint (da) c
• Dutch: vuursteen (nl) m
• Esperanto: fajroŝtono (dated)
• French: pierre à fusil (fr) f
• Galician: pederneira f
• German: Feuerstein (de) m, Zündstein m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: кремен m (kremen), белутрак m (belutrak)
• Norman: pièrre à feu f
• Polish: krzesiwo (pl) n
• Portuguese: pederneira (pt) f
• Russian: огни́во (ru) n (ognívo)
• Spanish: pedernal (es) m
• Ukrainian: креса́ло n (kresálo), огни́во (uk) n (ohnývo) (old)
• Volapük: (gun) flintoin güna

small cylinder

• Bulgarian: камъче n (kamǎče)
• Danish: flint (da) c
• Finnish: kivi (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: pierre à briquet (fr) f
• Spanish: pedernal (es) m, piedra (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} selce (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 부싯돌 (ko) (busitdol)

See also

• chert
• ferrocerium

Verb

flint (third-person singular simple present flints, present participle flinting, simple past and past participle flinted)

1. (transitive) To furnish or decorate an object with flint.

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Flint”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “flint”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.

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Middle English

Noun

flint

1. Alternative form of flynt

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flint/

Noun

flint f

1. genitive plural of flinta

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Swedish

Etymology 1

Clipping of flintskalle.

Noun

flint c

1. a bald head

   Vilken flint han har fått!

   My God, he has balded!

Declension

Declension of flint
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	flint	flinten	flintar	flintarna
Genitive	flints	flintens	flintars	flintarnas

Etymology 2

Clipping of flintskallig.

Adjective

flint (comparative mer flint, superlative mest flint)

1. (colloquial) bald

   Synonyms: (colloquial) flintis, flintskallig

Declension

Inflection of flint
Indefinite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative2
Common singular	flint	mer flint	mest flint
Neuter singular	flint	mer flint	mest flint
Plural	flinta	mer flinta	mest flinta
Masculine plural3	flinte	mer flinta	mest flinta
Definite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Masculine singular1	flinte	mer flinte	mest flinte
All	flinta	mer flinta	mest flinta
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic