fluke
UK/fluːk//fluk/
fluke noun: a lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.
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Noun (1)
fluke (plural flukes)
- A lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.
- We've classified by a fluke; actually, the first goal was just a total fluke.
- “[…] That's the first time in the history of Bierce's Cove that two men made that jump on the same sea. And all the risk was yours, coming last.”
“It was a fluke,” Billy insisted.1913 October, Jack London, chapter VIII, in The Valley of the Moon, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC
Verb
fluke (third-person singular simple present flukes, present participle fluking, simple past and past participle fluked)
- To obtain a successful outcome by pure chance.
- I fluked a pass in the multiple-choice exam.
- To fortuitously pot a ball in an unintended way.
- He fluked the other red into the middle pocket, despite the double kiss.
Noun (2)
fluke (plural fluke or flukes)
- A summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus)
- A trematode; a parasitic flatworm of the class Trematoda, related to tapeworms (class Cestoda).
- The man became infected with flukes after eating a meal of raw fish.
Noun (3)
fluke (plural flukes)
- Any of the triangular blades at the end of an anchor, designed to catch the ground.
- The fluke of the anchor was wedged between two outcroppings of rock and could not be dislodged.
- The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC
- Either of the two lobes of a whale's or similar creature's tail.
- The dolphin had an open wound on the left fluke of its tail where the propeller had injured it.
- But though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section of him is all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale's majestic flukes.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 55, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- A metal hook on the head of certain staff weapons (such as a bill), made in various forms depending on function, whether used for grappling or to penetrate armour when swung at an opponent.
- The polearm had a wide, sharpened fluke attached to the central point.
- In general, a winglike formation on a central piece.
- After casting the bronze statue, we filed down the flukes and spurs from the molding process.
- Waste cotton.
Proper noun capitalized: Fluke
Fluke (plural Flukes)
- A surname.
fluke meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
fluke in Hindi
- फ्लूक, फ़्लूक, फ़्लूके
fluke in Tamil
- எதிர்பாரா நன்மை, எதிர்பாரா வெற்றி, குருட்டு வெற்றி, குருட்டடி, குருட்டாம்போக்கு, நல்வாய்ப்பு
fluke in Marathi
- फ्लूक, फ्लुक, फ्लूक करण्यासाठी
fluke in Bengali
- ফ্লুক, ফ্লুক্, ফ্লুক করা
More languagesFewer languages
- fluke in Telugu
- ఫ్లూక్
- fluke in Malayalam
- യാദൃച്ഛികഭാഗ്യം, ആകസ്മികവിജയം, ഒരിനംകൃമി, നങ്കുരമുന
- fluke in Kannada
- ಅನಿರೀಕ್ಷಿತ ಲಾಭ, ಆಕಸ್ಮಿಕ ಸಾಧನೆ, ಅದೃಷ್ಟ ಲಾಭ
- fluke in Punjabi
- ਫਲਿਊਕ, ਫ਼ਲੂਕ
- fluke in Gujarati
- ફ્લૂક, ફ્લુક, ફ્લુક કરવા માટે
- fluke in Odia
- ଫ୍ଲୁକ୍, ଫ୍ଲୁକ
- fluke in Nepali
- फ्लुक, फ्लूक, फ्लुक गर्न
- fluke in Tagalog
- tsamba
Examples of fluke in a sentence
- "And I say," said Wimsey, "that it would be better for her to be hanged outright than to live and have everybody think her a murderess who got off by a fluke."1930, Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison:
- It's Christmas at ground zero / Now the missiles are on their way / What a crazy fluke / We're gonna get nuked / On this jolly holiday1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
- That this was not just a fluke was proved by a further profit the following year, albeit cut due to industrial action - jam at last!2020 January 2, David Clough, “How InterCity came back from the brink”, in Rail, page 69:
Forms of fluke
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | flukes |
| plural | fluke |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | flukes |
| present participle | fluking |
| past participle | fluked |
| past | fluked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Flukes |
Origin of fluke
Unknown, perhaps dialectal. It seems to have originally referred to a lucky shot at billiards. Possibly connected to sense 3, referring to whales' use of flukes to move rapidly. Possibly derived from German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”).
From Old English flōc (“flatfish”), of Germanic origin, related to German flach (“flat”), Old Norse floke (“flatfish”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.
Mid-16th century in the sense of “anchor blade”. Probably the same word as in etymology 2 above or else a related word for something flat (cf. Proto-Germanic *flakaz). A derivation from Middle Low German vlögel (“wing”), from Proto-Germanic *flugilaz, seems phonetically impossible. If anything, related vlōch, vlucht (“flight”, both also “wing”) or even *vlunke (modern Low German Flunk (“wing, pinion”)) are more plausible candidates. Note that the kind of whale's fin is called Fluke in contemporary German, but this is likely from English.
Words formed from fluke
- flukeless
- flukish
- fluke out
- fluke up
- Flatworms
- American fluke
- bile fluke
- blood fluke
- bladder fluke
- cat liver fluke
- cecal fluke
- Chinese liver fluke
- deer fluke
- eye fluke
- flukelike
- flukeworm
- flukicide
- giant intestinal fluke
- giant liver fluke
- lancet fluke
- lancet liver fluke
- liver fluke
- lung fluke
- sheep liver fluke
- other
- bannock fluke)
- Gulf fluke
- long fluke
- pole fluke
- sail fluke
- sail-fluke
- sand fluke
- snow fluke
- turn flukes
Phrases with fluke
Words that rhyme with fluke
Questions about fluke
- What does fluke mean?
- Fluke means a lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.
- What is fluke in Hindi?
- Fluke in Hindi is फ्लूक, फ़्लूक, फ़्लूके. See Fluke meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use fluke in a sentence?
- "And I say," said Wimsey, "that it would be better for her to be hanged outright than to live and have everybody think her a murderess who got off by a fluke."
- What part of speech is fluke?
- Fluke can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fluke?
- Fluke is pronounced /fluːk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fluke?
- The plural of fluke is flukes.
Words near fluke in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fluke (page history and authors); Fluke (page history and authors); fluke (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fluke (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fluke (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fluke (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fluke (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fluke.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fluke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fluke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.