flat

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Smooth and level, with no part higher than another.

   We need a flat surface to set up the tent.

2. 2
   adj

   Lying stretched out close to a surface.

   He lay flat on the floor to rest.

3. 3
   adj

   Having lost its bubbles or fizz.

   The soda went flat after sitting open all night.

4. 4
   noun

   A wide, level area of land.

   We drove across the salt flats of Utah.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Flat meaning “smooth and even” comes from Old Norse flatr. The noun meaning “apartment,” recorded from the early 19th century, is related to this sense; it originally meant a storey of a building and is an alteration of the obsolete Germanic word flet, “floor” or “dwelling.” Flatline arose in the 1970s from the straight line displayed by a heart monitor when the heart stops beating.

From an alteration (due to Scots flatt (“a level part of a structure”)) of Scots flet, flett (“inner part of a house”), from Middle English flet (“dwelling”), from Old English flet, flett (“ground floor, dwelling”), from Proto-West Germanic *flati, from Proto-Germanic *flatją (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”). More at flet, flat₁.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary