flute

American  

[floot] / flut /

noun

• flutes
  plural

1. a musical wind instrument consisting of a tube with a series of fingerholes or keys, in which the wind is directed against a sharp edge, either directly, as in the modern transverse flute, or through a flue, as in the recorder.

2. an organ stop with wide flue pipes, having a flutelike tone.

3. Architecture, Furniture. a channel, groove, or furrow, as on the shaft of a column.

4. any groove or furrow, as in a ruffle of cloth or on a piecrust.

5. one of the helical grooves of a twist drill.

6. a slender, footed wineglass of the 17th century, having a tall, conical bowl.

7. a similar stemmed glass, used especially for champagne.

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verb (used without object)

• flutes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fluted,
  past participle,  past
• fluting
  present participle

1. to produce flutelike sounds.

2. to play on a flute.

3. (of a metal strip or sheet) to kink or break in bending.

verb (used with object)

• flutes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fluted,
  past participle,  past
• fluting
  present participle

1. to utter in flutelike tones.

2. to form longitudinal flutes or furrows in.

   to flute a piecrust.

flute British  

/ fluːt /

noun

1. a wind instrument consisting of an open cylindrical tube of wood or metal having holes in the side stopped either by the fingers or by pads controlled by keys. The breath is directed across a mouth hole cut in the side, causing the air in the tube to vibrate. Range: about three octaves upwards from middle C

2. any pipe blown directly on the principle of a flue pipe, either by means of a mouth hole or through a fipple

3. architect a rounded shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column, pilaster, etc

4. a groove or furrow in cloth, etc

5. a tall narrow wineglass

6. anything shaped like a flute

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verb

1. to produce or utter (sounds) in the manner or tone of a flute

2. (tr) to make grooves or furrows in

flute Cultural  

1. A high-pitched woodwind, held horizontally by the player and played by blowing across a hole.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• flutelike
  adjective
• fluty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• flutes
  plural

Participles

• fluting
  present
• fluted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• flute
  simple
• flutes
  simple
• have fluted
  perfect
• has fluted
  perfect
• am fluting
  progressive
• are fluting
  progressive
• is fluting
  progressive
• have been fluting
  perfect progressive
• has been fluting
  perfect progressive

Past

• fluted
  simple
• had fluted
  perfect
• was fluting
  progressive
• were fluting
  progressive
• had been fluting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will flute
  simple
• will have fluted
  perfect
• will be fluting
  progressive
• will have been fluting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of flute

1350–1400; Middle English floute < Middle French flaüte, flahute, fleüte < Old Provençal flaüt (perhaps alteration of flaujol, flauja ) < Vulgar Latin *flabeolum. See flageolet, lute ¹

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Explanation

A flute is a thin woodwind instrument: you blow into it and put your fingers over the holes to make music. There are many types of instruments, such as percussion, brass, and woodwind. One of the most popular woodwind instruments is the flute, which is thin and makes high-pitched sounds. The flute looks like a thin tube or pipe with a hole on each end and holes on the body: your fingers go up and down over the holes and you blow into the flute to make music. The word flute can also mean a groove in a column; fluted columns are common in classical Greek architecture.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flute flutes fluted fluting

I grew up as a classical flute player but I was also into punk fashion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Mr. Threadgill, who plays alto saxophone and flute and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, first assembled this band 25 years ago to further a compositional strategy that is singular and yet invites improvised collaboration.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Near Darkness lurks a table laden with sugar-crusted fruit and an elaborately stemmed flute holding what looks like champagne.

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026

"We got a lot of champagne and some flute glasses from my boss at work, which were nice, but we have a lot of that so it will most likely get regifted," she says.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

She holds a mostly empty champagne flute in each hand.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

They debated machine consciousness at 40,000 feet over flutes of champagne.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Uruguay: “Tyrants: Tremble!/We shall cry out ‘Liberty’ in battle!” — a boast backed by flutes and violins that make it sound like a Rossini overture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

“Sunshower” praises the power of love and features a hearty rumba supporting piano, flutes and strings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

"We served Lambrini in our little flutes but we only really had regulars turn up," she said.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2025

Although these deceptively simple ancient flutes are almost all that survives of Palaeolithic music, acoustic scientists have recently made an extraordinary discovery about the lifesaving importance of music to cave-dwellers of this period.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

It's a small, intimate space, with fluted vaults and brick-lined walls that echo the Art Deco architecture of the former power station.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Its details are sharply chiseled and fluted, in the Streamline Moderne mode, and they turn what would otherwise be raw construction into lyrical architecture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026

Custom kitchens designed by Christopher Peacock are encased in wood and fluted glass cabinetry with 2-inch-thick Calacatta marble on the kitchen islands.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026

The building’s fluted Corinthian columns are right at home in neoclassical Washington, but they aren’t a match with the rest of the White House, with its simpler, smooth columns and Ionic capitals.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2025

There was also a laptop computer, a litigation bag with the FBI insignia in yellow, and a box of maple sugar candies—acorns, wee pilgrims, in fluted paper cups.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

A couple of employees are in the music business, which helps explain the aural entertainment; dinner tastes better with Herbie Mann fluting through “Muscle Shoals Nitty Gritty.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022

For Honoré, personally, parietal art includes paintings and engravings made on rock, but would exclude markings like finger fluting or the Quesang prints, and some other archaeologists hold the same view.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2021

In detailing the enormity of the Olympieion’s scale, Diodorus wrote that the fluting of the outer columns was big enough for a man to stand inside.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2020

Mirianashvili opted for a standard drinking glass, the kind with fluting at the base and a wide band near the rim.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019

Under the cacophony of foreign tongues, he heard queer music playing from somewhere up ahead, a thin high fluting accompanied by drums.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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