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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

There, archaeologists found two pieces of flint encased in birch tar residue, indicating the flint pieces were once hafted to other objects.

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

“Besides, Wylan isn’t just good with the flint and fuss. He’s our insurance.”

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

Private clubs nationwide are transforming their customer proposition from old-money exclusivity into easygoing family appeal, Jessica Flint reports for The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

“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

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

Nathan Murdoch, 38, runs Street Arts Hire and has painted several murals in Peterborough, including tributes to Prodigy singer Keith Flint, and a Jude Bellingham portrait during the football World Cup.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

I watched how Flint gradually learned to use more and more of the different calls and gestures that chimpanzees use to communicate with each other.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

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

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

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

She dressed herself and padded down the four flints of stairs in her darned and redarned stockings.

From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson

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