noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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obsolete:/ˈflætəs/
rhymes with -eɪtəs
1
noun
Meaning 1
Gas generated in the digestive tract.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Examples
This expression is utterly devoid of meaning, a mere flatus vocis.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Expulsion of such gas through the anus.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: flatulence, fart
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Morbid inflation or swelling.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
Examples
1730 April, Jonathan Swift, "A Vindication of the Lord Carteret", in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols (Eds.), The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, Volume IX, J. Johnson &c. (1801), page 226, [...] an incensed political surgeon, who is not in much renown for his mercy, upon great provocations: who, without waiting for his death, will flay and dissect him alive; and to the view of mankind lay open all the disordered cells of his brain, the venom of his tongue, the corruption of his heart, and spots and flatuses of his spleen: and all this for threepence.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
a reflex that expels intestinal gas through the anus
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
