belly flop

belly flop noun: a style of diving into a body of water in which the surface impact is made mostly by one's abdomen.

Noun

belly flop (plural belly flops)

A style of diving into a body of water in which the surface impact is made mostly by one's abdomen.
A similar move performed on a trampoline.
(slang) A flop; an utter failure.

Synonyms:

belly flopper, belly whop, belly whopper

belly flop (third-person singular simple present belly flops, present participle belly flopping, simple past and past participle belly flopped)

(intransitive) To perform this type of dive.
(intransitive) To perform this type of trampolining move.
(intransitive, slang) To flop; to be an utter failure.
- The director's first three movies belly flopped.

Noun
plural	belly flops
alternative form	bellyflop
alternative form	belly-flop
Verb
third-person singular present	belly flops
present participle	belly flopping
past participle	belly flopped
past	belly flopped

What does belly flop mean?: Belly flop means a style of diving into a body of water in which the surface impact is made mostly by one's abdomen.
What part of speech is belly flop?: Belly flop can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of belly flop?: The plural of belly flop is belly flops.

Adapted from Wiktionary: belly flop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-belly flop.wav.

Cite this entry: “belly flop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belly_flop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.