Dictionary Definition
flow
Noun
1 the motion characteristic of fluids (liquids or
gases) [syn: flowing]
2 the amount of fluid that flows in a given time
[syn: flow
rate, rate of
flow]
3 the act of flowing or streaming; continuous
progression [syn: stream]
4 any uninterrupted stream or discharge
5 something that resembles a flowing stream in
moving continuously; "a stream of people emptied from the
terminal"; "the museum had planned carefully for the flow of
visitors" [syn: stream]
6 dominant course (suggestive of running water)
of successive events or ideas; "two streams of development run
through American history"; "stream of consciousness"; "the flow of
thought"; "the current of history" [syn: stream, current]
7 the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus
of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause; "the women were
sickly and subject to excessive menstruation"; "a woman does not
take the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates; "the
semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time
of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females"--Aristotle
[syn: menstruation,
menses, menstruum, catamenia, period]
Verb
1 move or progress freely as if in a stream; "The
crowd flowed out of the stadium" [syn: flux]
2 move along, of liquids; "Water flowed into the
cave"; "the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi" [syn: run, feed, course]
3 cause to flow; "The artist flowed the washes on
the paper"
4 be abundantly present; "The champagne flowed at
the wedding"
5 fall or flow in a certain way; "This dress
hangs well"; "Her long black hair flowed down her back" [syn:
hang, fall]
6 cover or swamp with water
7 undergo menstruation; "She started menstruating
at the age of 11" [syn: menstruate]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- flō, /fləʊ/, /fl@U/
- Rhymes: -əʊ
Etymology
From flōwanNoun
- The movement of a fluid.
- The rising movement of the tide.
- Smoothness or
continuity.
- The room was small, but it had good symmetry and flow.
- The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.
- Turn on the valve and make sure you have sufficient flow.
- the state of being at one with.
Antonyms
- ebb (2)
Translations
the movement of a fluid
- Bosnian: tok , tečenje
- Breton: beradur
- Bulgarian: течение
- Croatian: tok , tečenje
- Czech: tok , proudění
- Danish: strøm
- Finnish: virtaus
- French: écoulement
- German: Fluss
- Italian: flusso
- Norwegian: flom , strøm
- Polish: przepływ
- Portuguese: fluxo
- Romanian: curgere
- Russian: течение (t'ečénije) , поток (potók)
- Serbian:
- Slovak: prúd , tok
- Slovene: tok
- Swedish: ström , flöde
- Turkish: akış
the rising movement of the tide
rate of fluid movement
being at one with
External links
Verb
- To move as a fluid from one position to another.
- To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.
- The writing is grammatically correct, but it just doesn't flow.
Translations
move as a fluid
- Breton: deverañ, berañ
- Bulgarian: тека, теч
- Czech: téct, proudit
- Danish: strømme
- Dutch: vloeien, stromen
- Finnish: virrata
- French: couler
- German: fließen
- Norwegian: flomme, strømme
- Polish: płynąć, przepływać
- Romanian: curge
- Russian: течь (t'eč) , струиться (struít's'a)
- Slovak: tiecť
- Slovene: teči
- Spanish: fluir
- Swedish: strömma, flyta
- Turkish: akmak
Extensive Definition
Flow may refer to:
In science and technology:
- Dataflow, computing term related to the flow of messages between software components
- Environmental flow, the amount of water necessary in a watercourse to maintain a healthy ecosystem
- Flow chemistry, a chemical reaction run in a continuous stream
- Flow cytometry, a technique for counting, examining and sorting microscopic particles suspended in a stream of fluid
- Flow (mathematics), a variable that depends on time
- Flow network, a directed graph where each edge receives a flow
- Flow (computer networking), a sequence of packets from a source to a destination
- Flow (programming language), a graphical programming language used in the webMethods Integration Server
- Flow (psychology), a psychological state where a person is fully immersed and focused on an activity or task
- Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid
- Mass flow rate, the movement of mass per time
- Volumetric flow rate, the volume of a fluid which passes through a given surface per unit of time
- Flow as in Stock and flow, a quantity measured over an interval of time in economics and finance
- Workflow, a reliably repeatable pattern of activity or process usually involving multiple tasks with a specific set of outcomes
In modern culture
- flOw, a computer game
- Flow (band), a Japanese group
- Flow (journal), an online journal of television and media studies
- Flow (policy debate), a form of note-taking in policy debate
- Flow (television), the sequencing of TV material from one element to the next
- Flow binding system, snowboard bindings
- "The New FLOW 93.5" or CFXJ-FM, a radio station in Toronto, Canada
- Flow, the delivery of a rap music vocal performance, defined by prosody, cadence, and speed.
flow in German: Flow
flow in French: Flow
flow in Italian: Flow (disambigua)
flow in Japanese: フロー (曖昧さ回避)
flow in Polish: Przepływ
(ujednoznacznienie)
flow in Simple English: Flow
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Atticism, Brownian movement,
abound, abundance, accrue from,
advance, affluence, afflux, affluxion, air flow, ample
sufficiency, ampleness, amplitude, angular motion,
appropriateness,
arise, arise from,
ascend, ascending, ascent, avalanche, axial motion,
back, back up, backflowing, backing, backward motion,
bag, be contingent on, be
due to, be effortless, be painless, begin, blow out, bonanza, bountifulness, bountiousness, brim, bristle with, bubble, bud from, budge, bumper crop, burble, career, cascade, change, change place, chasteness, chastity, chylifaction, chylification, circle, circulate, clarity, classicalism, classicism, clearness, climb, climbing, coast, coasting, come, come from, come out of,
comeliness, commute, concourse, confluence, conflux, continuance, continuation, continue, continuity, copiousness, correctness, course, cover, cover ground, crawl, crawl with, creep with,
crosscurrent,
current, daggle, dangle, defluxion, deluge, depend, depend on, derive from,
descend, descend from,
descending, descent, dignity, direct tide, directness, discharge, discrimination, disembogue, distinction, downflow, downpour, downward motion,
drabble, drag, draggle, drain, drain out, drape, drift, driftage, droop, ease, ebb, ebb and flow, ebb tide,
ebbing, effusion, egestion, ejaculation, ejection, elapse, elegance, elegancy, elimination, emanate, emanate from, emerge
from, emission,
emit, empty, endure, ensue from, excess, excretion, exhaust, expire, extravagance, extravasation, extrusion, exuberance, exuberate, exudation, facility, fall, fare, fare forth, felicitousness, felicity, fertility, fetch, find vent, finish, fittingness, flap, flight, flit, flood, flood tide, flop, flow back, flow from, flow
in, flow on, flow out, flowing, flowing periods,
fluency, fluidity, fluidness, flush, flux, flux and reflux, fluxility, fluxion, fly, foison, follow from, forward
motion, full measure, full tide, fullness, gang, generosity, generousness, germinate
from, get over, give no trouble, give off, glide, gliding, glissade, go, go along, go around, go by, go
easily, go like clockwork, go on, go round, go sideways, good
taste, grace, gracefulness, gracility, great abundance,
great plenty, grow from, grow out of, gurgle, gush, gush out, gyrate, hang, hang down, hang on, head, hie, high tide, high water, hinge
on, ice-skate, inflood,
inflow, inpour, inrush, issue, issue from, jet, juiciness, lactation, lactescence, landslide, lapse, last, lavishness, liberality, liberalness, limpidity, liquefaction, liquidness, lop, lots, low tide, low water, lucidity, lunar tide, luxuriance, make, maximum, milkiness, mill run, millrace, moisture, more than enough,
mount, mounting, move, move along, move on, move
over, movement,
much, myriad, myriads, naturalness, neap, neap tide, neatness, nod, numerousness, oblique
motion, ongoing,
onrush, onward course,
opposite tide, opulence, opulency, originate, originate in,
outflow, outpour, outpouring, overflow, overflowing, overspread, pass, pass by, passage, pellucidity, pend, perspicuity, plainness, plenitude, plenteousness, plentifulness, plenty, plethora, plunge, plunging, poetry, polish, pour, pour in, pour out, present no
difficulties, press on, prevalence, proceed, proceed from, prodigality, productiveness, profuseness, profusion, progress, progression, proliferate, propriety, pullulate, purity, purl, quantities, race, radial motion, rain, random motion, refinement, reflowing, refluence, reflux, regress, regression, regurgitate, repleteness, repletion, restraint, retrogress, retrogression, rheuminess, rich harvest,
rich vein, richness,
riot, riotousness, rip, ripple, riptide, rise, rising, roll, roll on, roller-skate,
rotate, run, run its course, run on, run
out, run over, run smoothly, rush, sag, sail, sailing, sappiness, sashay, scads, secretion, seemliness, sequence, series, serosity, set, shift, shower, sideslip, sideward motion,
simplicity, sink, sinking, skate, skateboard, skating, ski, skid, skiing, skim, sled, sledding, sleigh, slide, sliding, slip, slipping, slither, slithering, sluice, sluice out, smoothness, soar, soaring, solar tide, spate, spew, spew out, spill, spin, spout, spout out, spread, spring, spring from, spring tide,
sprout from, spurt,
squirt, stem, stem from, sternway, stir, straightforwardness,
stream, subside, subsiding, substantiality, substantialness,
succession, succulence, superabundance, supply, suppuration, surge, surge back, swag, swarm, swarm with, sweep, sweeping, swing, swirl, taste, tastefulness, teem, teem with, teemingness, terseness, thalassometer, tidal
amplitude, tidal current, tidal current chart, tidal flow, tidal
range, tide, tide chart,
tide gate, tide gauge, tide race, tide rip, tidewater, tideway, tobogganing, trail, traject, trajet, transudation, travel, trend, trickle, turbulence, turn on, unaffectedness, undercurrent, undertow, upward motion, vomit
forth, wane, water flow,
wateriness, wayfare, wealth, weep, well, well out, wend, whirl, work
well