Definitions and meaning of flute
flute
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: flo͞ot, IPA(key): /fluːt/
-
- Rhymes: -uːt
Etymology 1
From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, fleüte, from Old Provençal flaüt, of uncertain origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
- Blend of Provencal flaujol (“flageolet”) + laüt (“lute”)
- From Latin flātus (“blowing”), from flāre (“to blow”)
- Imitative.
Doublet of flauta and fluyt.
Noun
flute (plural flutes)
- (music) A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of holes that produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin.
- (colloquial) A recorder, also a woodwind instrument.
- A glass with a long, narrow bowl and a long stem, used for drinking wine, especially champagne.
- A lengthwise groove, such as one of the lengthwise grooves on a classical column, or a groove on a cutting tool (such as a drill bit, endmill, or reamer), which helps to form both a cutting edge and a channel through which chips can escape.
- Coordinate term: (cutter feature) tooth
- (architecture, firearms) A semicylindrical vertical groove, as in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.
- A long French bread roll, baguette.
- An organ stop with a flute-like sound.
- A shuttle in weaving tapestry etc.
Synonyms
- (as a specific instrument, a transverse, side-blown flute): Western concert flute
- (as a general category of musical instruments): edge-blown aerophone
Meronyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
- → Irish: fliúit
- → Welsh: ffliwt
Translations
References
- 1999. How to Love Your Flute: A Guide to Flutes and Flute Playing. Mark Shepard. Pg. 6.
Verb
flute (third-person singular simple present flutes, present participle fluting, simple past and past participle fluted)
- (intransitive) To play on a flute.
- (intransitive) To make a flutelike sound.
- (transitive) To utter with a flutelike sound.
- (transitive) To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle, etc.); to cut a semicylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar, etc.).
Related terms
- flute around
- champagne flute
- flautist
- fluted (adjective)
Translations
Etymology 2
Compare French flûte (“a transport”)?, Dutch fluit.
Noun
flute (plural flutes)
- A kind of flyboat; a storeship.
Further reading
- flute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
-
- Flute in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
- “flute”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
- “flute”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “flute”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 2290.
- “flute”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “flute”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “flute”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “flute”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “flute”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
French
Pronunciation
Noun
flute f (plural flutes)
- Post-1990 spelling of flûte
Further reading
- “flute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German
Verb
flute
- inflection of fluten:
- first-person singular present
- first/third-person singular subjunctive I
- singular imperative
Italian
Etymology
From flûte, from French flûte, from Old French fleüte, from Old Occitan flaut.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈflut/
- Rhymes: -ut
- Hyphenation: flùte
Noun
flute m (invariable)
- flute (type of glass)
- Synonyms: flûte, fluttino
Source: wiktionary.org