Join free

flite

English

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

flite¹

Rhymes with -aɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English flyt, flit, iflit, ȝeflit, from Old English flit, ġeflit (“strife, contention”), from Proto-West Germanic *flit n; related to Proto-West Germanic *flīt m, from Proto-Germanic *flītaz (“zeal, striving, diligence”). The term in Old English had a short vowel, so the long vowel in the modern term was likely influenced by the verb (see below).

Cognate with Scots flyte (“scolding, chiding, reproof”),

Saterland Frisian Fliet (“zeal, diligence”), Dutch vlijt (“zeal, diligence”), German Low German Fliet (“zeal, diligence”), German Fleiß (“zeal, diligence”), Danish flid (“zeal, diligence”), Swedish flit (“zeal, diligence”).

noun flites · flyte

  1. dialectal a quarrel, dispute, wrangling.
  2. dialectal a scolding.

flite²

Rhymes with -aɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English flyten (“to argue, quarrel”), from Old English flītan (“to strive, contend”), from Proto-West Germanic *flītan (“to strive, contend”). Akin to German befleissen (“to apply oneself diligently, endeavor”), Swedish beflita (“to apply to, study”), Norwegian Bokmål beflitte (“to endeavour, strive”).

verb flites · fliting · flited · flote

  1. dialectal to dispute, quarrel, wrangle, brawl.
  2. dialectal to scold, jeer.
  3. obsolete to make or utter complaint.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"flite." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/flite. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

flite. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/flite

Chicago

"flite." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/flite.

BibTeX
@misc{flite_2026,
  title = {flite},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/flite},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}