Skip to the word

Added 10 October 2026

flint

/flɪnt/ noun

In Latin: silex Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about flint at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A hard kind of stone; a form of silica more opaque than chalcedony.
A river in western Georgia that flows generally south to join the Chattahoochee River at the Florida border where they form the Apalachicola River.
A city in southeast central Michigan near Detroit; automobile manufacturing.

adjective

Showing unfeeling resistance to tender feelings.
his flinty gaze

Origin

From Middle English flynt, flint, from Old English flint, from Proto-West Germanic *flint, from Proto-Germanic *flintaz (compare Dutch vlint, flint (“flint, cobblestone”), German Flins, Flint (“flint, pebble”), Danish flint (“flint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)plind- (“to split, cleave”) (compare Irish slinn (“slate, shingle”), Ancient Greek πλίνθος (plínthos)), from *(s)pley- (“to split”). More at split.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word