Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flatulence |
FlatulenceNoun1. A state of excessive gas in the alimentary canal. 2. Pompously embellished language. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | Production or presence of gas in the gastrointestinal tract which may be expelled through the anus. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Flatulence consists of gases that are produced by symbiotic bacteria and yeasts living in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals and are released through the anus. The primary constituents of flatulence are methane (produced by bacteria) and carbon dioxide (produced by yeasts), neither of which have any smell at all. The smell of intestinal gas is caused by minute quanitites of various aromatic sulfur compounds picked up by these gases further on along their way down the intestinal tract.
Causes of flatulence
The gases are produced as a by-product of digesting certain types of food. Flatulence producing foods are typically high in starch, and include beans, yams, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, citrus rinds, chestnuts, broccoli, cabbage, yeast in breads, etc. In beans, the most notorious offenders in this regard, the problem seems to arise from starch molecules resistant to digestion: when the polysaccharides reach the intestines, intestinal bacteria feed on them, producing gas. In the case of those with lactose intolerance (ie. most non-Caucasian humans), intestinal bacteria feeding on lactose can give rise to excessive gas production. Another source of excessive gas production in the stomach is stress. Stressful situations can cause the stomach to produce gas. Also, not only does tight clothing cause a gassy stomach to be painful, it also can contribute to the production of gas.
Natural palliatives
Certain spices counteract the production of intestinal gas, most notably cumin, caraway and the closely related ajwain, turmeric, asafoetida (hing) and kombu (a Japanese culinary seaweed closely related to kelp).
Many people notice that if they reduce their intake of most refined carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, potatoes, and breads, their stomach gas production decreases significantly.
Health effects
A European study into the effect flatulence has on general health, did not find any statistical significant differences in the general health of more flatulent and less flatulent people. They did however find that those who vented more frequently, lived significantly happier lives. Despite many speculations, no direct cause for the phenomenon has been proven.
Breastfeeding mothers are advised to avoid gas producing food in their diet because breastfed babies can vomit when there is too much gas in their stomach.
Composition
Methane is the primary gas released. Four other gases that are found in large proportion are nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. As methane and hydrogen are flammable, some flatulence is as well. The gas released often has a foul odor which mainly results from sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide that are the result of protein breakdown.
Cultural reactions
In many human cultures, excessive flatulence is regarded as embarrassing and impolite, even to the point of being a taboo subject; and hence a natural subject for toilet humour: see Blazing Saddles, Le Pétomane, Kangaroo Jack, and Austin Powers, among others. Flatulence can be considered humourous to some people, either due to the scent or the sounds produced. Some find humor in lighting farts, which works well due to the methane content.
Environmental impact
Bovine flatulence is a source of greenhouse gas and may contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flatulence."
Synonyms: FlatulenceSynonyms: flatulency (n), gas (n), turgidity (n), turgidness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Gaseity | Noun: gaseity; vaporousness. Adjective: flatulence, flatulency; volatility; aeration, aerification. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flatulence |
| English words defined with "flatulence": aerophagia, Antiphysical ♦ carminative ♦ Flatulently, Flatuosity, flatus-relieving ♦ giardiasis. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "flatulence": Antifoaming Agents. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "flatulence": flatulent. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Flatulence" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. French (flatulence, flatulency). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Flatulence. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The unpleasant odor of flatulence comes from bacteria in the large intestine that release small amounts of gases that contain sulfur. (references) | |
The most common symptoms of gas are belching, flatulence, abdominal bloating, and abdominal pain. However, not everyone experiences these symptoms. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Flatulence" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Flatulence" is used about 40 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 40 | 54,274 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "flatulence": cause flatulence. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "flatulence": anti-flatulence. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "flatulence"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fryrje (blow, blowing, bounce, bulge, distention, flatulency, hot air, inflation, injection, insufflation, puff, puffery, vainglory, wind), vanitet (flatulency), gazra stomaku (flatulency). (various references) | |
Arabic | نفخة (blast, breath, flatulency, gust, puff, whiff), نفث الغاز (flatulency), إمتلاء البطن بالغازات (flatulency), إدعاء فارغ (flatulency). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | надутост (airiness, bombast, flatulency, fustian, grandiloquence, haughtiness, inflation, magniloquence, pomposity, self-importance, theatricality, uppishness), метеоризъм (flatulency). (various references) | |
Czech | nadýmání (flatulency, swell). (various references) | |
Danish | flatulens. (various references) | |
Dutch | flatulentie. (various references) | |
Finnish | puhkuisuus, ilmavaivat (meteorism, tympanism). (various references) | |
French | flatulence (flatulency). (various references) | |
German | Blähung (wind), flatulenz. (various references) | |
Greek | φούσκωμα (swell). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פליטת גאזים (flatulency), הפחה (blowing, insufflation, puffing up), גאזים בבטן, נפיחנות. (various references) | |
Hungarian | szélszorulás, elbizakodottság (self-confidence, self-importance), beképzeltség (egotism, conceit, self-confidence). (various references) | |
Italian | flatulenza (flatulency, wind). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鼓腸 (bloating). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | こちょう (bloating, butterfly, exaggeration). (various references) | |
Manx | geayaght (breeziness, windiness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | atulenceflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | flatulência (flatulency, wind), flatulência, vaidade (airs, conceit, concetto, flatulency, presumption, pretension, pride, self-conceit, self-importance, vainglory, vanity, vaunt). (various references) | |
Romanian | preţiozitate (affectation, affectedness, conceit, flatulency), meteorism (flatulency), emfazã (bombast, flatulency, importance). (various references) | |
Russian | метеоризм (flatulency). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | flatulencija (flatulency), naduvenost (flatulency, inflation), nadutost trbuha gasovima (flatulency). (various references) | |
Spanish | flatulencia (flatulency, wind), flato (flatulency, flatus, wind), hinchazón (swelling). (various references) | |
Swedish | väderspänning (flatulency), uppblåsthet (flatulency, inflation). (various references) | |
Turkish | yüksekten atma (big talk, blow, bluster, bounce, brag, pretension, tub-thumping), tantana (fanfare, pomp, rampage), midede gaz toplanması, hava atma, gazı olma. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | спучування (flatulency, inflation), метеоризм (flatulency, wind, windiness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | inflatio, inflationes. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "flatulence": flatulences. (additional references) | |
| |
"Flatulence" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aflatunense, faltulence, fatulence, flattulence, flatuence, flatulance, flayulence, flitelen. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-f-l-l-n-t-u" | |
-2 letters: feculent, lancelet, nucleate. | |
-3 letters: cuneate, feculae, fellate, leaflet, nacelle, nucleal, teenful. | |
-4 letters: callet, canful, cantle, cellae, cental, cetane, cullet, cuneal, eluant, eluate, eluent, enface, enlace, facete, fallen, faucet, fecula, flaunt, fluent, lacune, lancet, lateen, launce, lucent, lunate, luteal, tenace, unfelt, unlace. | |
-5 letters: acute, allee, anele, cella, centu, clean, cleat, cleft, culet, eaten, eclat, elate. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-f-l-l-n-t-u" | |
+1 letter: flatulences. | |
+2 letters: flatulencies. | |
+3 letters: ineffectually. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
