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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

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Etymology

Origin of flint

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

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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

Artefacts were also found at the site, including pottery, flint tools and animal bone, suggesting prehistoric people held gatherings there.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

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

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2024

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

From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2024

Here, Hublin's team uncovered chips from flint tools and a quartzite flake consistent with the LRJ technocomplex.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 31, 2024

Most of us lack expert knowledge of the flaking properties of flint and basalt and the fine motor skills needed to work them precisely.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

“Like lead in the water in Flint, Mich., and the forest fires out West, the very fabric of our lives is being altered.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

A report in 2021 by the coroner that carried out the Flint Cahan inquest warned that "a culture of impunity existed" at the Trust where "inaccurate and misleading recording of clinical records was tolerated."

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Dave Marsh was born in Flint, Michigan, where his dad worked on the railroad and did not appreciate the length of his son’s hair or the music he listened to.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

She swept Wayne and Genesee counties—which include Detroit and Flint, respectively—taking more than 60% of the vote in Detroit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Mrs. Flint suffered from thinning hair, and so there were always stray strands drifting around the kitchen floor—more than enough to stuff four mattresses.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

In the chapter titled “Cerium,” Levi describes how, wracked with hunger, he stole iron-cerium rods to make flints for cigarette lighters so that he could exchange them for bread.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

She said: "While sitting and chatting we realised the flints we were sitting on were extremely hot... some thoughtless, careless people had just buried three disposable BBQs which were still glowing red! Absolutely disgusting behaviour!"

From BBC ● May 31, 2026

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

“Might have taken three flints in this case.”

From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry

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