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# flee

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /fliː/
**Frequency rank:** 6193

## Meanings
1. To run away quickly, especially from danger.
2. To escape from a place or situation.

## Examples
- The prisoner tried to flee, but the guards caught him.
- Many people fled the country as war approached.

## Synonyms
- abscond
- absquatulate
- amscray
- bolt
- gnash
- hightail
- jump
- namous
- rabbit
- scamper
- scarper
- scat

## Derived Forms
- beflee
- everfleeing
- fleeable
- fleer
- outflee
- unfleeing

## Related Forms
- abandon
- flight
- flow
- fly

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *plewk-
- Root: flen
- Root: flēon
- Root: *fleuhan
- Root: *fleuhaną

## Etymology
From Middle English flen, from Old English flēon, from Proto-West Germanic *fleuhan, from Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”). Cognate with Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, Icelandic flýja, Swedish fly, Gothic 𐌸𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þliuhan). Within English, related to fly and more distantly to flow.

## AI Etymology
Flee comes from Middle English flen, from Old English flēon, from Proto-West Germanic *fleuhan, from Proto-Germanic *fleuhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-, *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”). Cognate with Dutch vlieden, German fliehen, Icelandic flýja, Swedish fly, Gothic 𐌸𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þliuhan). Within English, related to fly and more distantly to flow. In current use, the main senses are “To run away quickly, especially from danger” and “To escape from a place or situation”.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction

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