flag.
A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
Meaning & usage
A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
The design that could be placed on a flag, typically a rectangular graphic that is used to represent an entity (like a country, organisation or group of people) or an idea.
The flag of France has three vertical stripes.
A flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.
A signal flag.
The use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.
A variable or memory location that stores a Boolean true-or-false, yes-or-no value, typically either recording the fact that a certain event has occurred or requesting that a certain optional action take place.
In a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.
A mechanical indicator that pops up to draw the pilot's attention to a problem or malfunction.
The game of capture the flag.
A sequence of faces of a given polytope, one of each dimension up to that of the polytope (formally, though in practice not always explicitly, including the null face and the polytope itself), such that each face in the sequence is part of the next-higher dimension face.
A sequence of subspaces of a vector space, beginning with the null space and ending with the vector space itself, such that each member of the sequence (until the last) is a proper subspace of the next.
A dark piece of material that can be mounted on a stand to block or shape the light.
An apron.
An indication that a certain outcome or event is going to happen, deduced not logically or causally, but as a pattern in a piece of media. Chiefly used in video games and adjacent media, especially visual novels, it is typically described as being raised or set by the plot or words of a character.
set a death flag
raise the heroine's flags (in a galge)
A groat; fourpence.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.
To furnish or deck out with flags.
To mark with a flag, especially to indicate the importance of something.
To signal to, especially to stop a passing vehicle etc.
Please flag down a taxi for me.
To convey (a message) by means of flag signals.
to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance
To note, mark or point out for attention.
I've flagged up the need for further investigation into this.
Users of the Internet forum can flag others' posts as inappropriate.
To signal (an event).
The compiler flagged three errors.
To set a program variable to true.
Flag the debug option before running the program.
To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, etc. to arouse the animal's curiosity.
To penalize for an infraction.
The defender was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
To lose on time, especially in a blitz game; when using a traditional analog chess clock, a flag would fall when time expired.
To defeat (an opponent) on time, especially in a blitz game.
White was winning positionally, but Black managed to flag him and win.
To point the muzzle of a firearm at a person or object one does not intend to fire on.
To fail, such as a class or an exam.
After he flagged Algebra, Mike was ineligible for the football team.
In female canids, to signal mating readiness by moving the tail aside to expose the vulva.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.
To weaken, become feeble.
His strength flagged toward the end of the race.
To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.
To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness.
To enervate; to exhaust the vigour or elasticity of.
Where this word comes from
Perhaps from a variant of flack (“to hang loose”), from Middle English flacken; or perhaps from Old Norse. Compare Middle Dutch flaggheren, vlaggheren (“to droop, flag”).
Any of various plants with sword-shaped leaves, especially irises; specifically, Iris pseudacorus.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flagge, of uncertain origin, perhaps from North Germanic; compare Danish flæg (“yellow iris”). Or, possibly from sense 1, referring to its motion in the wind. Compare also Dutch vlag.
A slice of turf; a sod.
A slab of stone; a flagstone, a flat piece of stone used for paving.
Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flag, flagge, probably of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; compare Icelandic flag.
To pave with flagstones.
Fred is planning to flag his patio this weekend.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flag, flagge, probably of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; compare Icelandic flag.
A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.
A group of elongated wing feathers in certain hawks.
The bushy tail of a dog such as a setter.
A hook attached to the stem of a written note that assigns its rhythmic value
Try it on your idea.
flag has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.