# flute
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: flo͞ot, IPA: /fluːt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -uːt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, fleüte, from Old Provençal flaüt, of uncertain origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
* Blend of Provencal flaujol (“flageolet”) + laüt (“lute”)
* From Latin flātus (“blowing”), from flāre (“to blow”)
* Imitative.
Doublet of flauta and fluyt.

#### Noun

flute (plural flutes)
* (music) A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of holes that produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin.
** 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 217:The breathing flute's ſoft notes are heard around, / And the ſhril trumpets mix their ſilver ſound; / The vaulted roofs vvith echoing muſic ring, / Theſe touch the vocal ſtops, and thoſe the trembling ſtring.
** 2008 January 15, Jon Pareles, “To See (and Hear) the World in Five Hours: Unique Sounds Ripe for Import”, in The New York Times‎:The group played huge drums placed overhead, along with flutes and a kotolike zither.
** 2018, Robert Philip, The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 465:After another alternation of the two elements, there is a more playful episode, in which flute and bassoon take up the first element, with swooping glissando on the ondes Martenot.
* (colloquial) A recorder, also a woodwind instrument.
* A glass with a long, narrow bowl and a long stem, used for drinking wine, especially champagne.
** 2018, Sally Rooney, “Six Months Later (July 2013)”, in Normal People:These are champagne glasses, says Peggy. No, I mean the tall ones, Jamie says. You're thinking of flutes, says Peggy. These are coupes.
* A lengthwise groove, such as one of the lengthwise grooves on a classical column, or a groove on a cutting tool (such as a drill bit, endmill, or reamer), which helps to form both a cutting edge and a channel through which chips can escape.
    Coordinate term: (cutter feature) tooth
* (architecture, firearms) A semicylindrical vertical groove, as in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.
* A long French bread roll, baguette.
* An organ stop with a flute-like sound.
* A shuttle in weaving tapestry etc.

##### Synonyms

* (as a specific instrument, a transverse, side-blown flute): Western concert flute
* (as a general category of musical instruments): edge-blown aerophone

##### Meronyms

* (music): fipple, labium

##### Derived terms

* alto flute
* block flute
* chimney flute
* devil's flute
* Divje Babe flute
* duct flute
* en flute
* English flute
* eunuch flute
* fluteful
* fluteless
* flutemouth
* flute-player
* fluter
* flute stop
* flutework
* flutey
* flutist
* flutophone
* fluty
* German flute
* hyperbass flute
* Irish flute
* Native American flute
* nose flute
* octave flute
* onion flute
* pan flute
* shepherd's flute
* skin flute
* transverse flute
* vertical flute
* vessel flute
* Western concert flute
* whistle and flute

##### Related terms

* flageolet
* flute-douce

##### Descendants

* → Irish: fliúit
* → Welsh: ffliwt

##### References

* ↑ 1858, Peter Lund Simmonds, The Dictionary of Trade Products
* 1999. How to Love Your Flute: A Guide to Flutes and Flute Playing. Mark Shepard. Pg. 6.

#### Verb

flute (third-person singular simple present flutes, present participle fluting, simple past and past participle fluted)
* (intransitive) To play on a flute.
* (intransitive) To make a flutelike sound.
** 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.
* (transitive) To utter with a flutelike sound.
** 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:“Oh, there's my precious Poppet,” said Phyllis, as a distant barking reached the ears. “He's asking for his dinner, the sweet little angel. All right, darling, Mother's coming,” she fluted, and buzzed off on the errand of mercy.
* (transitive) To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle, etc.); to cut a semicylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar, etc.).

##### Related terms

* flute around
* champagne flute
* flautist
* fluted (adjective)

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Compare French flûte (“a transport”)?, Dutch fluit.

#### Noun

flute (plural flutes)
* A kind of flyboat; a storeship.

### Further reading

* flute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Flute in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
* “flute”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
* “flute”, in Collins English Dictionary.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “flute”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 2290.
* “flute”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* “flute”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “flute”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “flute”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “flute”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /flyt/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

flute f (plural flutes)
* post-1990 spelling of flûte

### Further reading

* “flute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## German
### Verb

flute
* inflection of fluten:
** first-person singular present
** first/third-person singular subjunctive I
** singular imperative

## Italian
### Etymology

From flûte, from French flûte, from Old French fleüte, from Old Occitan flaut.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈflut/
* Rhymes: -ut
* Hyphenation: flùte

### Noun

flute m (invariable)
* flute (type of glass)
    Synonyms: flûte, fluttino