🪨 A flint worker 🪨 A flint chip 🪨 To chip flint

flinter

9.9

A small sharp piece of hard stone made when shaping stones into tools

noun
/ˈflɪntər/

: fragmento de sílex

He cut his finger on a sharp flinter that had fallen from the tool.

Examples

Archaeologists found a flinter among the ancient stone tools at the site.
Be careful when handling the rocks, as a flinter can easily pierce your skin.
Look at that tiny flinter on the ground.
My grandfather used a flinter to make tools.
Archaeologists found a flinter among the ancient stone tools at the site.
Be careful when handling the rocks, as a flinter can easily pierce your skin.
He cut his finger on a sharp flinter that had fallen from the tool.

Synonyms

flintstone

vsflinter

37 7.2

A hard rock used to make tools, build walls, or start fires

is specifically a sharp chip formed when that stone is struck

flint

vsflinter

30 6.1

A hard gray or brown stone that makes sparks when you hit it and helps start a fire

is a small sharp chip produced when that hard stone is worked

How Sharp

splinter

79 2.8

flinter

9.9

chip

130 2.1

piece

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

flinter singular

flinters plural

Morphology

flinter = flint (opaque) = flint + er

Although the form contains 'flint' and '-er', the sense 'a chip or flake of flint' is specialized and not a standard agentive meaning.

Etymology

Flinter comes from the stone flint with the ending -er, so imagine a small thing named after the rock. A helpful image is a tiny, sharp 'flake' of flint that can cut you, which is why a flinter is a small chip of the stone.