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• flint
  flint

  noun

  a hard stone, a form of silica resembling chalcedony but more opaque, less pure, and less lustrous.
• Flint
  Flint

  noun

  Austin, 1812–86, U.S. physician: founder of Bellevue and Buffalo medical colleges.

flint

¹ American  

[flint] / flɪnt /

noun

• flints
  plural

1. a hard stone, a form of silica resembling chalcedony but more opaque, less pure, and less lustrous.

2. a piece of this, especially as used for striking fire.

3. a chunk of this used as a primitive tool or as the core from which such a tool was struck.

4. something very hard or unyielding.

5. a small piece of metal, usually an iron alloy, used to produce a spark to ignite the fuel in a cigarette lighter.

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verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with flint.

Flint ² American  

[flint] / flɪnt /

noun

1. Austin, 1812–86, U.S. physician: founder of Bellevue and Buffalo medical colleges.

2. his son Austin, 1836–1915, U.S. physiologist and physician.

3. a city in SE Michigan.

4. Flintshire.

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flint ¹ British  

/ flɪnt /

noun

1. an impure opaque microcrystalline greyish-black form of quartz that occurs in chalk. It produces sparks when struck with steel and is used in the manufacture of pottery, flint glass, and road-construction materials. Formula: SiO 2

2. any piece of flint, esp one used as a primitive tool or for striking fire

3. a small cylindrical piece of an iron alloy, used in cigarette lighters

4. Also called: flint glass.   white flint.  colourless glass other than plate glass

5. See optical flint

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verb

1. (tr) to fit or provide with a flint

Flint ² British  

/ flɪnt /

noun

1. a town in NE Wales, in Flintshire, on the Dee estuary. Pop: 11 936 (2001)

2. a city in SE Michigan: closure of the car production plants led to a high level of unemployment. Pop: 120 292 (2003 est)

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flint Scientific  

/ flĭnt /

1. A very hard, gray to black variety of chalcedony that makes sparks when it is struck with steel. It breaks with a conchoidal fracture.

2. The dark gray to black variety of chert.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• flintlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• flints
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flint

before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Middle Dutch vlint, Danish flint; cf. plinth

Explanation

Flint is a very hard type of rock. Ever since humans first learned to make tools, back in the Stone Age, they've used flint. Through history, flint has been used for sharp tools, in walls and buildings, for making sparks to start fires, and in jewelry and pottery. You can also use the word figuratively, to mean a quality of hardness or even cruelty in a someone's personality: "The flint in his nature made him unsympathetic even to the most pitiful crying child."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flint Flint flints

The team used it to successfully haft two flint arrowheads to wooden handles.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 22, 2024

You have to be particular about muzzle-loading a flintlock and making sure the flint is in place.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2024

The ground is hard like flint and when the wind blows across the plains, dust covers the squatters and all that they carry.

From BBC ● May 25, 2024

Most of the clues come as pottery, flint tools and bones.

From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2024

Cook gave me four, along with tinder and flint.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

The uncertainty created by such lack of guidance has become one of several legitimate problems that needs resolution, said Troy Flint, chief communications officer for the California School Boards Assn.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

This past Father’s Day, Javier Flint noticed his son Elijah was able to read the text on greeting cards when they were at a shop together.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Joe Flint is a media and entertainment reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in the Los Angeles bureau, covering everything from broadcast networks and sports to cable and streaming.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

Pete Hawkins, aged 17 at the time, was working nearby with the son of foreman Jim Flint.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

What happened in Flint Creek, flowing through 50 miles of Alabama cotton country before emptying into Wheeler Reservoir, was typical of the region.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

There are certainly flints of autobiography and different friends in different characters — they’ve read it and liked it, and if they saw themselves, they were pleasant about it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

In the chemical industry, cerium is widely used in oil refining and glass polishing -- as well as in flints for cigarette lighters.

From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026

More than 3,500 finds were discovered during the excavation, including animal bone, glass and worked flints and 1,405 broken pieces of pottery.

From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2024

Although the electric drills used today are a far cry from the handheld flints and metal tools used thousands of years ago, the objective — making a hole in the skull — is the same.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2023

“I’m never angry with you. It takes two flints to make a fire. You are as cool and soft as snow.”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott