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Definition: Flat |
FlatAdjective1. Having a horizontal surface in which no part is higher or lower than another; "a flat desk"; "acres of level farmland"; "a plane surface". 2. Having no depth or thickness. 3. Not modified or restricted by reservations; "a categorical denial"; "a flat refusal". 4. Stretched out and lying at full length along the ground; "found himself lying flat on the floor". 5. (photography) lacking contrast or shading between tones. 6. (music) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone; "B flat". 7. (biology) flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes). 8. Lacking taste or flavor or tang; "a bland diet"; "insipid hospital food"; "flavorless supermarket tomatoes"; "vapid beer"; "vapid tea". 9. Lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting; "a bland little drama"; "a flat joke". 10. : having lost effervescence; "flat beer"; "a flat cola". 11. : not increasing as the amount taxed increases. 12. : not made with leavening; "most flat breads are made from unleavened dough". 13. : parallel to the ground; "a flat roof". 14. : without pleats. 15. : lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth; "a film with two-dimensional characters"; "a flat two-dimensional painting". 16. : (of a tire) completely or partially deflated. 17. : not reflecting light; not glossy; "flat wall paint"; "a photograph with a matte finish". 18. : lacking variety in shading; "a flat unshaded painting". Adverb1. At full length; "he fell flat on his face". 2. With flat sails; "sail flat against the wind". 3. Below the proper pitch; "she sang flat last night". 4. Against a flat surface; "he lay flat on his back". 5. In a forthright manner; candidly or frankly; "he didn't answer directly"; "told me straight out"; "came out flat for less work and more pay". 6. Wholly or completely; "He is flat broke". Noun1. A level tract of land. 2. A shallow box in which seedlings are started. 3. A 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. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flat" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references) |
Note: Flat \Flat\, adjective. [Comparative Flatter; superlative Flattest.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Flat adj. 1. [common] Lacking any complex internal structure. "That bitty box has only a flat filesystem, not a hierarchical one." The verb form is flatten. 2. Said of a memory architecture (like that of the VAX or 680x0) that is one big linear address space (typically with each possible value of a processor register corresponding to a unique core address), as opposed to a `segmented' architecture (like that of the 80x86) in which addresses are composed from a base-register/offset pair (segmented designs are generally considered cretinous). Note that sense 1 (at least with respect to filesystems) is usually used pejoratively, while sense 2 is a Good Thing. Source: Jargon File. |
Transportation | A broad, flat-bottomed floating structure without sheer, rectangular in shape, resembling a barge. Source: European Union. (references) |
19th Century Satire | A series of padded cells, commonly found in cities, in which are confined harmless monomaniacs who imagine Home to be a Sardine Box. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Chemical Industry | The description of a painted surfacewhich scatters or absorbs the light falling on it, so as to be substantially free from gloss or sheen. Source: European Union. (references) |
Electrical Engineering | Section ground into an ingot which, after the ingot is cut into wafers; identifies the wafer's crystal orientation. Source: European Union. (references) |
Finance | Excluding accrued interest. A bond where the interest is included in the price is said to be traded flat. Source: European Union. (references) |
| An apartment located entirely on one floor. (references) | |
Fine Arts | A scenic piece, usually a rectangular wooden frame covered with painted canvas, standing as part of a wall or flied as part of a ceiling. Source: European Union. (references) |
Food & Agriculture | A shallow box-type container used mainly for raising seedlings. Source: European Union. (references) |
| Flavour of olive oil whose organoleptic characteristics are very weak owing to the loss of their aromatic components. Source: European Union. (references) | |
| Applied to Champagne or other sparkling wines, one that has lost its sparkle. . . Source: European Union. (references) | |
Literature | Flat One who is not sharp; a suite of rooms on one floor. "Oh, Messrs ... what flats you are!" - The Times. "He said he was going to have a flat to let on the top floor." - Howells: Hazards of New Fortunes. vol. i. part i. p. 123. Flat as a flounder. I knocked him down flat as a flounder. A flounder is one of the flat-fish. Flat as a pancake. Quite flat. A pancake is a thin flat cake, fried in a pan. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Mechanical Engineering | Said of a deflated pneumatic tire. Source: European Union. (references) |
Military | In photography, lacking in contrast. (references) |
Mining | A. In mine timbering, horizontal crosspiece or cap used in roof support. b. Of a mining lode, one less than 15 degrees from horizontal in its dip c. A horizontal orebody, regardless of genetic type d. A flat coal seam e. A railroad car of the gondola type for shipping coal.f. A dull diamond bit. See also:going bord. (references) |
Occupations | A flat edge ground along a semiconductor crystal to denote crystal orientation and resistivity and which serves as a reference line during processing. (references) |
Post & Telecom | Letter or publication of A4 size that is sent unfolded. Source: European Union. (references) |
Publishing & Graphic Arts | The sheet containing offset negatives or positives in the proper arrangement, from which the printing plate is made. Source: European Union. (references) |
Slang | Verb. Source: Unknown. Definition: The group uses this word as a meaning of somebody have ing no personality. Context: They use it in the form as you are almost not cool to hang out with. Social Source: Lake Oswego "Rebels". Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references) |
Slang in 1811 | FLAT. A bubble, gull, or silly fellow. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In music, flat means "lower in pitch by a semitone," and has an associated symbol, which looks like a lowercase "b"; the note A flat is shown in musical notation in Figure 1. Under equal temperament, C flat is the same as B and F flat is the same as E. There also exist double-flats, which look roughly like "bb".In musical tuning, flat can also mean "very slightly lower in pitch." If two strings are slightly out of tune, the lower-pitched one is said to be flat with respect to the other.
Figure 1. The note A flat on the treble clef.Play an A and an A flat
See also sharp
The word flat also has other, unrelated uses:
- flatness
- flat tire
- flat tax
- flatline
- A flat is another name for an apartment
- In abstract algebra, a module is flat if taking the tensor product with it preserves exact sequences.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flat."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The flat Earth theory is the idea that Earth is flat, as opposed to the view of modern science that Earth is very nearly spherical (see spherical Earth).People from early antiquity generally believed the world was flat, but by the time of Pliny the Elder (1st century) its spherical shape was generally acknowledged. Ptolemy derived his maps from a curved globe and developed the system of latitude and longitude.
Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the renaissance of science several centuries later, some Christian writers questioned and even opposed Earth's sphericity, although it is not clearly known how influential their views were. Even before the Renaissance began, the flat Earth theory had almost died out, yielding by the 900s or 1100s to the idea that Earth is a globe.
Some Christians in England and America tried to revive Flat Earth thinking in the 19th century, and a few hold out to this day (see Flat Earth Society).
Antiquity
Belief in a flat Earth is found in humankind's oldest writings. In early Mesopotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early Greek maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus.
By classical times an alternate idea, that Earth was spherical, had appeared. This was espoused by Pythagoras apparently on aesthetic grounds, as he also held all other celestial bodies to be spherical. Aristotle provided physical evidence for the spherical Earth:
Earth's circumference was estimated around 240 BC by Eratosthenes, who heard about a place in Egypt where the sun was directly overhead at the summer solstice and used geometry to come up with a circumference of 250,000 stades. This estimate astonishes some modern writers, as it is within 2% of the modern value of 40,070 kilometers.
- Ships receding over the horizon disappear hull-first.
- Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon.
- The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round.
Middle Ages
One popular belief is that, after the downfall of the Roman Empire, the knowledge of the spherical Earth was lost, and people believed in a flat Earth again. The extent to which this is true is disputed.
It is certain that several Christian writers explicitly argued against the spherical Earth. Lactantius (245-325) calls it "folly" because people on a sphere would fall down; Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386) saw Earth as a firmament floating on water; Saint John Chrysostom (344-408) saw a spherical Earth as contradictory to scripture; Severian, Bishop of Gabala (d. 408) and Diodorus of Tarsus (d. 394) argued for a flat Earth; and Cosmas Indicopleustes (547) called Earth "a parallelogram, flat, and surrounded by four seas" in his Christian Topography. There are relatively few historical records of the period between 600 and 1000 for either spherical or flat-Earth thinking. Saint Basil (329-379) argued that knowledge about Earth's shape was irrelevant.
It is unclear how influential these writers were. Different historians have argued either for very high (e.g. Andrew Dickson White) or very low (e.g. Jeffrey Russell) influence. Russell, a Christian scholar at Santa Barbara whose main contribution to historical scholarship is a series of books on the history of concepts of evil and ideas of Satan, explored the issue in Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians. Russell claims that the Flat Earth theory is a myth used to impugn pre-modern civilization, especially that of the Middle Ages in Europe.
One critical part of this dispute is the belief in antipodes, that is, people living on the opposite side of Earth, with their feet faced against ours. Even some of the most important medieval scholars like Saint Augustine (354-430) argued against antipodes and called them a "fable". However, Augustine explicitly pointed out that the belief in a spherical Earth did not directly imply a belief in antipodes:
The phrase "even should it be believed or demonstrated that the world is round" indicates that this was certainly not the consensus of the time, and possibly not even believed by Augustine. This is in clear contrast to the pre-Christian period. Procopius of Gaza (491-518) argued that "if there be men on the other side of the Earth, Christ must have gone there and suffered a second time to save them; and therefore there must have been, as necessary preliminaries to his coming, a duplicate Adam, Eden, serpent, and Deluge!" Saint Boniface (d. 755) accused Vergilius (d. 784) of "teaching a doctrine in regard to the rotundity of the Earth, which was 'contrary to the Scriptures'." (Catholic Encyclopedia). Pope Zacharias decided that "if it be proved that he held the said doctrine, a council be held, and Vergilius expelled from the Church and deprived of his priestly dignity." Vergilius believed "that beneath the Earth there was another world and other men, another Sun and Moon."
- "Those who affirm [a belief in antipodes] do not claim to possess any actual information; they merely conjecture that, since the Earth is suspended within the concavity of the heavens, and there is as much room on the one side of it as on the other, therefore the part which is beneath cannot be void of human inhabitants. They fail to notice that, even should it be believed or demonstrated that the world is round or spherical in form, it does not follow that the part of the Earth opposite to us is not completely covered with water, or that any conjectured dry land there should be inhabited by men. For Scripture, which confirms the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, teaches not falsehood; and it is too absurd to say that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of human beings descended from that one first man." (De Civitate Dei, xvi, 9)
The primitive level of medieval cartography also makes it difficult to estimate the degree of flat-Earth thinking. The question whether average people in the Middle Ages believed in a flat Earth may yet be completely separate from the surviving manuscripts, given the low literacy of the time and the fact that it was probably the priests in the churches, not the few noted theologians, who defined public opinion on the matter.
Modern people who do not accept the spherical Earth and base this opinion on Scripture do not represent a continuing school of Biblical exegesis, although some small groups work hard to keep the concept alive.
Earth is very smooth, which is to say, flat. Much smoother than, for example, a billiard ball which if it were the size of Earth would have mountains 50 miles high.
Also see
- Flat Earth Society
- Discworld written by Terry Pratchett
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flat Earth."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In flat engines or boxer engines or horizontally opposed engines the pistons lie horizontally opposed, giving them a very low center of gravity. Some experts distinguish between V-at-180° engines and real boxer engines. The real boxer has one crank pin per piston while in the V-at-180° engine two pistons share the same crank pin. Real boxer engines can run perfectly smooth and free of vibrations with a four-stroke cycle, regardless of number of cylinders.The flat configuration fits very well with air cooling. Porsche and Subaru use the design extensively in their engines today.
Related topics :
- Flat-twin
- Flat-4
- Flat-6
- Flat-8
- Flat-12
See Also
V engine, Straight engine
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flat engine."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
'Flat shading\' is lighting technique used in 3D computer graphics. It shades each polygon of an object based on the polygon's surface normal and the position and intensity of a light source. It is usually used for high speed rendering where more advanced shading techniques are too computationally expensive.The disadvantage of flat shading is that it gives low-polygon models a facetted look. Sometimes this look can be advantageous though, such as in modelling boxy objects. Artists sometimes use flat shading to look at the polygons of a solid model they are creating. More advanced and realistic lighting and shading techniques include Gouraud shading and Phong shading.
See also: computer graphics
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flat shading."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Flat is a town located in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population of the town is 4. According to the United States Census Bureau, it is one of only 6 places in the United States with a population of four people. The others are Blacksville, Georgia, Northwest Hancock, Maine, Township 157-30, Minnesota, Victory Township, Minnesota, and Bean's Purchase, New Hampshire.
Geography
Flat is located at 62°27'15" North, 158°0'30" West (62.454135, -158.008284)1.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 417.2 km² (161.1 mi²). 417.2 km² (161.1 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 4 people, 1 household, and 1 family residing in the town. The population density is 0.0/km² (0.0/mi²). There are 3 housing units at an average density of 0.0/km² (0.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 100.00% White, 0.00% Black or African American, 0.00% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.00% from two or more races. 0.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.There are 1 household out of which 100.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 100.0% are married couples living together, 0.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 0.0% are non-families. 0.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 0.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 4.00 and the average family size is 4.00.
In the town the population is spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 25.0% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 25.0% from 45 to 64, and 0.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 33 years. For every 100 females there are 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 200.0 males.
The median income for a household in the town is $0, and the median income for a family is $0. Males have a median income of $0 versus $0 for females. The per capita income for the town is $0. 0.0% of the population and 0.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 0.0% are under the age of 18 and 0.0% are 65 or older.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flat, Alaska."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The term shape of the Universe can most usefully refer either to the shape of a comoving spatial section of the Universe (a loose term for this is the shape of space) or more generally, to the shape of the whole of space-time.
The shape of space (a comoving spatial section of the Universe)
Language/Intuition Prerequisites
To understand concepts of the shape of the universe, according to the standard big bang model, the reader should, ideally, first develop his/her intuition of manifolds, and more specifically, of Riemannian manifolds.
However, those definitions are somewhat abstract.
Here is an attempted shortcut to developing that intuition.
The reader's ordinary notions of space and time are likely to be wrong, they are psychological constructions developed from common sense and folk physics. These notions are useful for ordinary living, as they closely approximate reality over distances and times that are at human scales, but this does not make them real.
An easy way to convince yourself that your intuition is wrong in at least one way is to imagine a globe of the Earth with the South Pole at the "top". Does this seem "wrong"? If the North Pole is at the "top", does this seem "right"? How is it possible that somehow "North" is "right" and "South" is "wrong"? It is clear that physically, there should be symmetry between North and South, neither should be favoured. So clearly there is something wrong in your spatial intuition if you have the feeling that a globe with the South Pole at the "top" seems wrong. Try looking at a map of your country/region with South at the top and the effect should be clear.
One way of developing correct intuition is to ignore one's existing intuition and start from scratch, from very simple logic.
The reader should imagine starting off with a very abstract definition of a set, which is more or less just a collection of points, and then adding more and more definitions. These definitions include ways in which the points relate to each other, and eventually include some concepts so that this set has some properties which are like the common notions of a space.
It is then proposed that the reader accept the use of two-dimensional spaces as analogies for real, three-dimensional space, since this way the third dimension of his/her intuition can be used as a psychological tool for imagining different possibilities for two-dimensional spaces. The reader should remember that the use of a dimension for intuition-building does not imply that it has any physical meaning. It is merely one way, among many, of thinking about spaces of different curvature and topology.
Comoving space
Comoving coordinates are necessary for thinking about the shape of the Universe. In comoving coordinates, we can think of the Universe as static, despite the fact that in reality it is expanding. This is simply a useful way of separating geometry (shape) from dynamics (expansion).
Local geometry (curvature) versus global geometry (topology)
Local geometry (curvature)
In simple words, this is the question of whether or not Pythagoras' theorem, is correct, or equivalently, whether or not parallel lines remain equidistant from one another, in the space one is talking about.
If we put Pythagoras' theorem in the form
then:
The first and third of these are relatively easy to imagine with two-dimensional analogies. The first is an infinite flat plane. The third is the surface of an ordinary sphere.
- a flat space (zero curvature) is one for which this is true
- an hyperbolic space (negative curvature) is one for which
- a spherical space (positive curvature) is one for which
Global geometry (topology)
In simple words, this is the question which ignores Pythagoras' theorem.
Three different two-dimensional spaces which are all flat spaces, in all of which Pythagoras' theorem is true, are
Each of these is globally very different.
- an infinite flat plane
- an infinitely long cylinder
- a 2-torus, i.e. a cylinder with two ends which are defined to be stuck to each other ("identified" with each other)
The third is finite in 2-volume, i.e. surface area, but has no edges and Pythagoras' theorem is true everywhere in it.
The Twin paradox leads to a new paradox in the context of the global shape of space. See the external references below for more on this.
What is the shape of space of our Universe?
We know neither the local nor the global shape of space. We do know that the local shape is approximately flat, just like the Earth is approximately flat. We do not yet know the topology of the universe, and maybe never will.
The shape of the whole of space-time
remains to be written
See also Friedman-Robertson-Walker.
External references
Intuition building:
Texts:
- global geometry (topology); requires java (Jeff Weeks' pages)
- Twin paradox - Barrow & Levin
- Twin paradox - Uzan et al
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Shape of the universe."
Synonyms: FlatSynonyms: bland (adj), categoric (adj), categorical (adj), compressed (adj), fixed (adj), flavorless (adj), flavourless (adj), insipid (adj), level (adj), mat (adj), matt (adj), matte (adj), matted (adj), plane (adj), prostrate (adj), savorless (adj), savourless (adj), two-dimensional (adj), unconditional (adj), unpleated (adj), unraised (adj), vapid (adj), directly (adv), straight (adv), apartment (n), flat tire (n), flatcar (n). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: flattest (mechanical engineering, transportation), wide-open (food & agriculture). |
| Antonyms: contrasty (adj), natural (adj), sharp (adj), indirectly (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Affirmation | Pronunciative, affirmative, soi-disant; positive; certain; express, explicit; (patent); absolute, emphatic, flat, broad, round, pointed, marked, distinct, decided, confident, trenchant, dogmatic, definitive, formal, solemn, categorical, peremptory; unretracted; predicable. |
Bungler | No conjurer, flat, muff, slow coach, looby, lubber, swab; clod, yokel, awkward squad, blanc-bec; galoot. |
Dejection | Dreary, flat; dull, dull as a beetle, dull as ditchwater; depressing; Verb: |
Dullness | Stupid, slow, flat, insipid, vapid, humdrum, monotonous; melancholic; stolid; plodding. |
Adjective: dull, dull as ditch water; unentertaining, uninteresting, flat, dry as dust; unfunny, unlively, logy; unimaginative; insulse; dry as dust; prosy, prosing, prosaic; matter of fact, commonplace, pedestrian, pointless; "weary stale flat and unprofitable". | |
Dupe | Noun: dupe, gull, gudgeon, gobemouche, cull, cully, victim, pigeon, April fool; jay, sucker; laughingstock; Cyclops, simple Simon, flat; greenhorn; fool; puppet, cat's paw. |
Horizontality | Adjective: horizontal, level, even, plane; flat; flat as a billiard table, flat as a bowling green; alluvial; calm, calm as a mill pond; smooth, smooth as glass. |
Insensibility | Apathetic; leuco-, phlegmatic; dull, frigid; cold blooded, cold hearted; cold as charity; flat, maudlin, obtuse, inert, supine, sluggish, torpid, torpedinous, torporific; sleepy; (inactive); languid, half-hearted, tame; numbed; comatose; anaesthetic; stupefied, chloroformed, drugged, stoned; palsy-stricken. |
Insipidity | Adjective: bland, void of taste; insipid; tasteless, gustless, savorless; ingustible, mawkish, milk and water, weak, stale, flat, vapid, fade, wishy-washy, mild; untasted. |
Lowness | Adjective: low, neap, debased; nether, nether most; flat, level with the ground; lying low; Verb: crouched, subjacent, squat, prostrate; (horizontal). |
Physical Inertness | Adjective: inert, inactive, passive; torpid; sluggish, dull, heavy, flat, slack, tame, slow, blunt; unreactive; lifeless, dead, uninfluential. |
Pitfall | Noun: rocks, reefs, coral reef, sunken rocks, snags; sands, quicksands; syrt, syrtis; Goodwin sands, sandy foundation; slippery ground; breakers, shoals, shallows, bank, shelf, flat, lee shore, ironbound coast; rock ahead, breakers ahead. |
Receptacle | Chamber, apartment, room, cabin; office, court, hall, atrium; suite of rooms, apartment, flat, story; saloon, salon, parlor; by-room, cubicle; presence chamber; sitting room, best room, keeping room, drawing room, reception room, state room; gallery, cabinet, closet; pew, box; boudoir; adytum, sanctum; bedroom, dormitory; refectory, dining room, salle-a-manger; nursery, schoolroom; library, study; studio; billiard room, smoking room; den; stateroom, tablinum, tenement. |
Simplicity | Bald, flat, dull. |
Weariness | Adjective: wearying; Verb: wearing; wearisome, tiresome, irksome; uninteresting, stupid, bald, devoid of interest, dry, monotonous, dull, arid, tedious, humdrum, mortal, flat; prosy, prosing; slow, soporific, somniferous. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flat |
| English words defined with "flat": common flat pea ♦ flat cap, flat file, Flat hoop, Flat nail, flat out, flat pea, Flat rail, Flat rope, flat solid, Flat stitch, flat tip screwdriver ♦ salt flat ♦ To fall flat ♦ wing flat. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "flat": ceiling flat ♦ FILM FLAT INSPECTOR, flat address space, flat ASCII, flat bed, flat belt, flat belt conveyor, flat clamp, FLAT CLOTHIER, FLAT COCK, flat drill, flat fillister screw, flat hammerer, flat idler, flat pattern, FLAT POLISHER, Flat Race, Flat Simplicity, flat sour, FLAT SURFACER, JEWEL, flat thunk ♦ headless set screw with flat point ♦ river flat ♦ tidal flat, tide flat ♦ valley flat ♦ wide flat. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "flat": Tarsus. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Flat" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (apartment, apartment building, block of flats, flat), Indonesian (apartment), Malay (apartment, flat), Norwegian (even, flat, level, smooth), Portuguese (flat), Swedish (aghast, flat, indulgent, plate, shallow, taken aback, weak). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I'm a lot like my dad: brown hair, flat chest (While You Were Sleeping; writing credit: Daniel G. Sullivan; Fredric LeBow) Flat rate or percentage (The Sting; writing credit: David S. Ward) Archie and the Riverdale gang were a pure and fun loving bunch. You cna't fing dysfunction in those comics, because they were just flat out wholesome (Chasing Amy; writing credit: Kevin Smith.) I mean, I know we all secretly hope the other one will trip and fall flat on her facebut oh wait a minute, I've already done that (Miss Congeniality; writing credit: Marc Lawrence; Katie Ford) Last week I took this actress back to my flat. She had five orgasms (Drop the Dead Donkey; writing credit: Andy Hamilton; Guy Jenkin) | |
Lyrics | Suma tuma tires and they gotta be run flat (Still Fly; performing artist: Big Tymers) Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River (GREEN RIVER; performing artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival) Step on stage and get faded just like a flat top (Keep Their Headz Ringin; performing artist: Dr. Dre) You keep comin' in and keep comin' out and singin flat (Give It Up, Turn It Loose; performing artist: En Vogue) Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train (Me & Bobby McGee; performing artist: Janis Joplin) | |
Tongue Twisters | The fickle finger of fate flips fat frogs flat. (references; author: unknown) Try fat flat flounders. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bachelor Flat (1961) Flat No. 9 (1961) The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1958) Flat Foot Fledging (1952) The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A flat red spot that is rough, dry or scaly may indicate skin cancer. See artwork: RR-15b, WYNTK-22b. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | A flat, red spot that has become rough, dry and scaly may indicate skin cancer. See artwork: RR-15b, WYNTK-22b. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | Infected cell (right) shows hypertrophy while the uninfected adjacent endothelial cell (left) remains thin and flat. Transmission electron micrograph. Credit: CDC. |  | Symptoms of typhoid fever may include a sustained fever as high as 103° to 104° F (39° to 40° C), weakness, stomach pains, headache, loss of appetite. In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. Credit: CDC. |
 | 3-D image from NOAA Exclusive Economic Zone Mapping Project Astoria Channel - to the west of Oregon continental slope Note small ridge-like structures running left to right in image These are artifacts of sounding system and common on flat bottom These artifacts are parallel to survey ship tracks. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Army surveyor with odometer carriage Survey of public lands Odometer worked fairly well on flat ground. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Other than the cold, baseline measurements were facilitated by measuring across the flat lagoon ice from mainland point-to-point. Baselines were measured to second-order standards and 4-5 miles long. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Brooks Range visible miles away over the flat Arctic plain Such views lend credence to the flat earth theory Just kidding!. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Helicopter support of seismic monitoring stations in the Katmai National Park area. No flat area to land helicopter further up mountain. Credit: Flying With NOAA. |  | Flat Creek at Keswick reservoir near Redding CA near normal riparian habitat. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Wall in a flat" by Kim Heisler Commentary: "I took these photos while renovating the flat of a friend." | "Window view" by Marcin Sobolew Commentary: "View from my flat in Gdynia, POLAND on Gulf of Gdansk." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | A quarter thrown onto a flat surface and allowed to spin for awhile. | | Dropping a sack of coins onto a flat surface. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Henry Brooks Adams | American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it. |
Jean De La BruyFre | A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner. |
Miguel De Cervantes | Well, there's a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other. |
William Shakespeare | O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
A Christmas Carol | Dickens, Charles | It would have been flat heresy to do so. |
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish | Douglas Adams | Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Madeleine, lying almost flat under the fearful weight, was twice seen to try in vain to bring his elbows and knees nearer together |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | And the train raced on over the flat lands and past the Hill of Allen |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The water swirled into the flat where the boxcars stood |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | For your mouths lying flat with your faces, you can hardly bite each other to any purpose, unless by consent |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | They can be raised or flat, single or multiple, small or large. (references) | |
In some cases, patients have a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. (references) | ||
Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) presents as a darkly pigmented, flat to nodular lesion on palms, soles, and subungually. (references) | ||
Business | In 1999, Turkey imported USD 52 million of flat glass. (references) | |
Turkey exports about 20 percent of its flat glass production. (references) | ||
U.S. trucks are constructed for huge highways, mainly flat with few hills. (references) | ||
Economic History | China | China's overall meat exports by volume remain flat. (references) |
India | Terrain: Varies from Himalayas to flat river valleys. (references) | |
Macau | Terrain: Coastline is flat, inland is hilly and rocky. (references) | |
Human Rights | Korea | Amnesty International has reported the existence of "punishment cells," too low to allow standing upright and too small for lying down flat, where prisoners are kept for up to several weeks for breaking prison rules. (references) |
Political Economy | KUWAIT | This flat rate is applied to the Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value of imported goods. (references) |
CHILE | After rising steadily over the proceeding ten years, minimum wage and wages as a whole have essentially been flat over the past two years. (references) | |
Trade | Guinea | Guinea has a flat import tax rate of 33% on most imports. (references) |
Ireland | The electrical plug is the British type with three flat prongs. (references) | |
Korea | Korea has a flat 10% Value Added Tax on all imports and domestically manufactured goods. (references) | |
Travel | Philippines | Hotel taxis charge a flat rate for travel to specified locations. (references) |
Ghana | Personal: For foreign nationals, a flat tax of 35% is exacted, irrespective of income level. (references) | |
Azerbaijan | A basic, two bedroom flat with little renovation can be rented for as little as $500 per month. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Vanuatu | Since 1995 it has been a flat rate of approximately $143 (16,000 vatu) per month for both urban and rural workers. (references) |
Russia | A flat 13 percent personal income tax, which became effective January 1, appeared to reduce incentives of enterprises not to report actual wages; tax collection increased in nominal terms by 36 percent during the first 11 months of the year. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TROGLODYTE, n. Specifically, a cave-dweller of the paleolithic period, after the Tree and before the Flat. A famous community of troglodytes dwelt with David in the Cave of Adullam. The colony consisted of "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" -- in brief, all the Socialists of Judah. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Mark Geragos | Just flat out refused. And that was extremely disconcerting because she never wanted to kind of turn this into the spectacle that it became. |
Phyllis Diller | OK. Now you know, I was always talking about being flat, always tell them I'm flat, I got nothing under here, and they thought we will follow the fat-fat with the skin-skin skinny. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Flat" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 59.33% of the time. "Flat" is used about 4,728 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) | 59.33% | 2,805 | 3,299 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 35.31% | 1,669 | 5,011 |
| Adverb (general) | 5.28% | 250 | 18,796 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.06% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Unclassified Items | 0.02% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 4,728 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "flat". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Jesui | N/A | Biblical | Flat country |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
| Country | Name |
| Indonesia | Asahimas Flat Glass Tbk. P.T. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
1. Flat, KY 2. Flat, TX |
Expressions using "flat": a flat with all modern conveniences ♦ aircraft flat pallet ♦ Alkali flat ♦ as flat as a pancake ♦ ash Flat ♦ b flat ♦ bachelor flat ♦ be flat ♦ be flat broke ♦ be flat out ♦ be lying flat out ♦ beat smth. flat ♦ become flat ♦ big Flat ♦ Burns Flat ♦ c flat ♦ ceiling flat ♦ common flat pea ♦ council flat ♦ d flat ♦ Dead flat ♦ digestive gland disease of flat oysters ♦ drive flat out ♦ Dutch Flat ♦ e flat ♦ East Flat Rock ♦ estimate at a flat rate ♦ f flat ♦ fall flat ♦ fall flat on one's back ♦ fall flat upon the ear ♦ flat address space ♦ flat arch ♦ flat as a board ♦ flat as a flounder ♦ flat as a fluke ♦ flat as a pancake ♦ flat as my hand ♦ flat ASCII ♦ flat bed ♦ flat belt ♦ flat bench ♦ flat bone ♦ flat broke ♦ flat calm ♦ flat cap ♦ Flat chasing ♦ Flat chisel ♦ flat cigar ♦ flat clamp ♦ flat coat ♦ flat compounded ♦ flat constraint set ♦ flat contradiction ♦ flat cost ♦ flat country ♦ flat crawling ♦ flat denial ♦ flat feet ♦ flat felled seam ♦ flat file ♦ flat fillister screw ♦ flat fish ♦ flat foot ♦ flat ground ♦ flat headed nail ♦ Flat hoop ♦ flat iron ♦ flat its wings ♦ flat joke ♦ flat key ♦ flat knot ♦ flat land ♦ flat landing ♦ flat line reinsurance ♦ flat link ♦ flat low ♦ flat money ♦ Flat nail ♦ flat nonsense ♦ flat nose pliers ♦ flat of the hand ♦ flat on one's stomach ♦ flat out ♦ flat paint ♦ Flat paper ♦ flat pattern ♦ flat pea ♦ flat piece ♦ flat pressure maintaining ♦ flat price ♦ flat proof ♦ flat race ♦ Flat rail ♦ flat random noise ♦ flat rate ♦ flat refusal ♦ Flat River ♦ Flat Rock ♦ Flat rods ♦ Flat roof. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "flat": flat-ASCII, flat-back, flat-backed, flat-based, flat-batted, flat-bed, flat-bedded, flat-bell, flat-bellied, flat-bladed, flat-boat, flat-boats, flat-bottom, flat-bottomed, flat-bottoms, flat-brimmed, flat-broke, flat-buying, flat-calm, Flat-cap, flat-capped, flat-car, flat-cars, flat-cart, Flat-c-b, flat-changing, flat-chased, flat-chested, flat-coated retriever, flat-coiled, flat-crested, flat-destructive, flat-dweller, flat-dwellers, flat-dwelling, Flat-earth, Flat-earthers, flat-edged, flat-faced, flat-featured, flat-fee, flat-feet, flat-field, flat-file, flat-first, flat-floored, flat-foot, flat-footed, flat-four, flat-fronted, flat-grain, flat-hat, Flat-headed, flat-heeled, flat-hunt, flat-hunting, flat-iron, flat-irons, flat-land, flat-leaf, flat-leaf parsley, flat-leaved, flat-lid, flat-lidded, flat-lying, flat-mate, flat-mates, flat-maximum, flat-mount, flat-mounted, flat-muscled, flat-nik, flat-nosed, flat-nosed pliers, flat-on, flat-out, flat-ownership, flat-pack, flat-packed, flat-palm, flat-panel, flat-picking, flat-plate, flat-proud, flat-race, flat-racing, flat-radiused, flat-rate, flat-rate charge, flat-response, flat-rods, flat-roof, flat-roofed, flat-sawed, flat-sawn, flat-screen, flat-shared, flat-sharing, flat-sided, flat-six, flat-smouldering, flat-soled, flat-sounding, flat-spot, flat-surfaced, flat-timber, flat-tongued, flat-top, flat-toped, flat-topped, flat-topped white aster, flat-tops, flat-warming, flat-warrens, flat-ways, flat-white, flat-wise, flat-work, flat-wound. | |
Ending with "flat": a-flat, b-flat, dead-flat, fenny-flat, fl-flat, folded-flat, granny-flat, lay-flat, lie-flat, mid-flat, mirror-flat, mud-flat, near-flat, pack-flat, perfectly-flat, sea-flat, semi-flat, sharp-flat, stage-flat, un-flat. | |
Containing "flat": be flat-footed, B-flat clarinet, b-flat minor, feet-flat-on-the-floor, hands-flat-against-the-roof-of-the-car. | |
| 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
flat panel monitor | 1,941 | flat coated retriever | 162 |
flat screen monitor | 941 | flat stomach | 160 |
flat screen tv | 753 | flat chest | 153 |
flat screen | 505 | flat wart | 153 |
flat chested | 415 | flat file | 148 |
flat panel display | 413 | flat rock north carolina | 146 |
flat foot | 403 | flat tv | 145 |
flat | 379 | flat stanley | 144 |
flat tire | 362 | ceramic flat iron | 142 |
flat irons | 298 | lcd flat panel monitor | 140 |
flat panel tv | 294 | flat chested woman | 138 |