Word.ws English Dictionary

false flags

false flags is the plural of false flag.

false flags is the third-person singular simple present indicative of false flag.

Meaning of false flag

Noun

false flag (plural false flags)

  1. A ruse, in the days of sail, in which an attacking ship would fly the colours of its enemy until close enough to open fire.
  2. A diversionary or propaganda tactic of deceiving an adversary into thinking that an operation was carried out by another party.
    • Using what the bureau calls a "False Flag" operation, F.B.I. agents posing as Russian intelligence officers contacted Mr. Pitts in August 1995, long after it believed he had ceased his spying activities, and feigned interest in reactivating him as a means of confirming his spying activities and...1996 December, David Johnston, “F.B.I. Supervisor Charged With Spying for Russians”, in The New York Times

See all 3 meanings of false flag

Questions about false flags

What is false flags the plural of?
False flags is the plural of false flag.

Words near false flags in the dictionary

  1. false flagged
  2. false flagger
  3. false flaggers
  4. false flagging
  5. false flaggotry
  6. false flags
  7. false flat
  8. false flats
  9. false flax
  10. false flax oil
  11. false flax oils

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: false flags (page history and authors); false flag (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:

Cite this entry: “false flags.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/false_flags. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.