Flatter

How to spell flatter

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce flatter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flatter mean?

1. verbTo praise someone excessively or insincerely, often to win favour.
2. adjectiveThe comparative form of flat: more level or even.

Flatter in a sentence

• verb

  He tried to flatter his manager with endless compliments before the review.

• adjective

  The road grew flatter as we left the hills behind us.

• verb

  Expensive gifts will not flatter the panel into bending the rules.

• adjective

  After the carpenter sanded it, the table felt much flatter to the touch.

Where does flatter come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French flater, which meant to stroke, to caress, or to fawn over someone, and which probably grew from a Frankish Germanic root tied to the idea of something flat, since stroking is done with the flat of the hand. By the early 1200s English had adopted it, and the literal sense of gentle stroking soon shifted into the figurative sense of soothing a person with pleasing, often insincere, words. The spelling settled with a doubled t, which mirrors the comparative form of the adjective flat (meaning more flat) and is the reason the two unrelated meanings share an identical shape. The praising sense and the everyday adjective flat are not directly related in meaning, but the proposed Germanic flat root quietly links them. The doubled consonant is the only real spelling point to watch, since the unstressed second syllable can tempt a single t.

How the word is built

• flat- (from Old French flater: to stroke, caress)
• -er (verbal/comparative ending)