fart
Americannoun
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farts
plural
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a release of intestinal gas through the anus; a flatus.
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an irritating or foolish person.
verb (used without object)
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farts,
present (3rd person singular)
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farted,
past participle, past
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farting
present participle
verb phrase
noun
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an emission of intestinal gas from the anus, esp an audible one
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a contemptible person
verb
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to expel intestinal gas from the anus; to break wind
-
-
to behave foolishly or aimlessly
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to waste time
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Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fartsimple
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fartssimple
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have fartedperfect
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has fartedperfect
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am fartingprogressive
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are fartingprogressive
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is fartingprogressive
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have been fartingperfect progressive
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has been fartingperfect progressive
Past
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fartedsimple
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had fartedperfect
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was fartingprogressive
-
were fartingprogressive
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had been fartingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fart
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English ferten, farten (verb), fert, fart (noun); cognate with Greek pérdein (verb), pordḗ (noun)
Explanation
We don’t all like to admit it, but we all fart. That is, we all pass smelly gas out of our anus. Kids — and a few adults too — find farting funny. If someone lets out a long fart during church or class, someone is bound to laugh. However, the teacher probably won’t laugh, and the culprit could be in big trouble. Be careful about accusing others of farting, because one of the oldest rules of the schoolyard is “He who smelt it, dealt it.” A less slangy word for fart is flatulence.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Our lives are very normal, and we’re grounded family people. At the end of the day, we come home, our kids fart on Tom’s head, and I make dinner.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
"Well, everybody loves a good fart joke, regardless of your age," Serkis laughs.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Zimmer: Was there a fart joke in there, though?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
“I’m a big dusty old fart when it comes to the mystique of things,” she says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
In the soft dark the cotton truck spilled the pickers out and roared out of the yard with a sound like a giant’s fart.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
“Do you have boys in here? ... Boys talk about farts all the time,” Curtis said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026
"I feel for Sammy. At the moment, if he farts it's a headline," said Bailey.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025
Not to mention the distinctive smell of feces and flatus, i.e., farts.
From Salon ● May 31, 2025
They sleep in the same bed and complain about each other’s farts.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
And then all of a sudden she let out the biggest, loudest, smelliest fart in the history of farts.
From "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio
But back on set the following day, the Swansea-born actor said she then "farted in front of him", adding: "I was mortified."
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026
“If I farted, I would have definitely been laughing, because farts are always funny,” she added.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2022
When Otilia Marquez drives through Carson with her mom and little sister, the air stinks so much that one of them always jokes: “Who farted? Who didn’t take a shower? Put your shoes back on!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2021
I ask because I saw a lot of people on Twitter say that they would have farted in Roger Goodell’s chair.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2021
“You farted in bed when we lived in Brooklyn and all 1 fed you were potato pancakes and knishes!”
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Ethan Dang, a Vanderbilt University freshman, joked that a fellow student bet $4,000 on Polymarket on somebody farting during a speech by President Trump.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Memes citing the farting scene from “Blazing Saddles” and others too rude to mention in a family newspaper immediately befouled my phone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
I’ll hold it in now, because we just met, but normally I would be farting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2025
"All of us who have been vaccinated, has anyone stopped farting?"
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2025
Here they had discovered for themselves the disconnected delights of underwater farting.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
