flow

English Online Dictionary. What means flow‎? What does flow mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: flō
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fləʊ/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /floʊ/
• Homophones: floe, Flo
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Etymology 1

From Middle English flowe, from the verb (see below). The psychology sense “state of focus” was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975.

Noun

flow (countable and uncountable, plural flows)

1. Movement in people or things characterized with a continuous motion, involving either a non solid mass or a multitude.
2. The movement of a real or figurative fluid.
3. (mathematics) A formalization of the idea of the motion of particles in a fluid, as a group action of the real numbers on a set.

4. The rising movement of the tide.
5. Smoothness or continuity.

6. The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.

7. A flow pipe, carrying liquid away from a boiler or other central plant (compare with return pipe which returns fluid to central plant).
8. (psychology) A mental state characterized by concentration, focus and enjoyment of a given task.
9. The emission of blood during menstruation.

10. (rap music slang) The ability to skilfully rap along to a beat.
11. (software) The sequence of steps taken in a piece of software to perform some action.

Synonyms

• (continuity): See also Thesaurus:continuity

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “movement of the tide”): ebb
• (antonym(s) of “continuity”): See also Thesaurus:discontinuity

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• flow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flow (psychology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English flowen, from Old English flōwan (“to flow”), from Proto-West Germanic *flōan, from Proto-Germanic *flōaną (“to flow”), from Proto-Indo-European *plōw-, lengthened o-grade form of *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian flouje (“to flow”), West Frisian floeie (“to flow”), Dutch vloeien (“to flow”), Norwegian flo (“to flow”). Compare also English float. Not cognate with Latin fluō despite similarity.

Verb

flow (third-person singular simple present flows, present participle flowing, simple past and past participle flowed)

1. (intransitive) To move as a fluid from one position to another.
2. (intransitive) To proceed; to issue forth; to emanate.
3. (intransitive) To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.
4. (intransitive) To have or be in abundance; to abound, so as to run or flow over.
5. (intransitive) To hang loosely and wave.
6. (intransitive) To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb.
7. (transitive, computing) To arrange (text in a wordprocessor, etc.) so that it wraps neatly into a designated space; to reflow.
8. (transitive) To allow (a liquid) to flow.
9. (transitive) To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
10. (transitive) To cover with varnish.
11. (intransitive) To discharge excessive blood from the uterus.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse flói (“a large bay, firth”), see floe. Compare Scots flow (“peat-bog, marsh”), Icelandic flói (“marshy ground”).

Noun

flow (plural flows)

1. (Scotland) A bog or mire, especially a rough, waterlogged one.
   • 1895, Crockett, Moss-Hags page xlii:

     Had been roughly laid with bog-wood dug from the flowes,

   • 1898 July 23, Shetland News, quoted in the EDD:

     If dey wirna a day apo' da flow dan he [it] wis nae man's bishaness.

Derived terms

• flow-bog, flow-moss

References

• “flow, n.².”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “flow, v., n.¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FLOW”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC. (suggests the origin is Norwegian dialectal floe "pool of water in swampy ground; swamp")

Anagrams

• Wolf, fowl, wolf

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English flow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /floː/

Noun

flow f or m (plural flows)

1. (music) rhythm, flow of music (particularly in jazz)

2. (music) flow (ability to skilfully rap)

3. (psychology) flow (mental state characterized by concentration, focus and enjoyment of a given task)

4. streak of successes

French

Pronunciation

Noun

flow m (plural flows)

1. (rap, music) flow
2. flow (style)

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English flow.

Noun

flow m

1. (colloquial) flow (the ability to rap skillfully)

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English flow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflou/ [ˈflou̯]
• Rhymes: -ou

Noun

flow m

1. (colloquial) flow (the ability to rap skillfully)
2. (colloquial, uncommon) flow (as in go with the flow)

   ir con el flow ― go with the flow