# The meaning of the word 'flat' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321 "2004-10-15T04:18:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/1 "2004-10-15T04:18:37Z")
What’s a ‘flat’ for English speakers when talking about houses? How do you call living quarters in a high building? What do you call a high building? The reason I ask, is: We use the English word ‘flat’ [pronounced the English way - it’s not a Dutch word] to describe an appartment in a building with more than, say, 6 floors. We _also_ use ‘flat’ to describe a high building. I mean, that’s weird, isn’t it? How can something be flat _and_ high? 🙂 I think we’re totally wrong in using it and it baffles me as to where it came from. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/2 "2004-10-15T04:30:16Z")
Well, Webster’s 1913 dictionary says the usage is archaic: [Flat](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=flat) > [@](#): > > 1. (Arch.) A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself\<-- an apartment taking up a whole floor But, in the midwest, we still use the term ‘flat’ to refer to an apartment that takes up an entire floor of a building. There were _lots_ of 2 and 3 story flats built in the 20’s and 30’s; one family per floor, each with a nice porch. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/3 "2004-10-15T06:43:29Z")
“Flat” in the UK and Ireland is an apartment. It may take up less than the entire flloor of a building; you can have several flats on the same floor. Conversely, it can spread over two or more floors; I have heard the expression “duplex flat”, although “duplex apartment” or simply “duplex” would be more usual. They’re still “flats” even if they are in a relatively small building, or a building which used to be one large dwelling but which has been subdivided. A purpose-built building consisting of flats is a “block of flats”. A one-room apartment is not a flat. It is a bedsit. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/4 "2004-10-15T06:47:03Z")
It may have been archaic for Webster in 1913, but _Flat_ is still in current usage in the UK as the standard word for any apartment on one floor. A tall building made up of many of these is called a _block of flats._ ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/5 "2004-10-15T06:55:23Z")
In NZ I’ve heard it used to refer to an entire house, provided it is a rental property, normally the residents would be young. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/6 "2004-10-15T07:12:54Z")
\*Flat \* is still widely used in Australia to refer to an apartment. Newspapers will list _Flats to Let_. ---
**Author:** ![Aankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aankh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/7 "2004-10-15T10:01:25Z")
Does the word refer to the fact that the apartment is completely on one level, as opposed to, say, a duplex? Sort of, a ‘flat’ because it’s flat…? ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/8 "2004-10-15T11:20:37Z")
[Monty Python]Well, we’re sorry you feel like that but we, er, did want a block of flats. Nice though the abattoir is. [/Monty Python] ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/9 "2004-10-15T13:01:06Z")
In upstate New York, the term “flat” came to carry a highly pejorative sense – a flat was an apartment in a decrepit building or otherwise undesirable, a tenement, a third-floor walk-up with minimum legal amenities or less. If you had a rather pleasant apartment, it was an apartment, not a flat. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/10 "2004-10-15T13:08:13Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > A one-room apartment is not a flat. It is a bedsit. Or if you happen to be an estate agent, ‘compact studio flat’ or some such. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/11 "2004-10-15T13:23:54Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > In upstate New York, the term “flat” came to carry a highly pejorative sense – a flat was an apartment in a decrepit building or otherwise undesirable, a tenement, a third-floor walk-up with minimum legal amenities or less. If you had a rather pleasant apartment, it was an apartment, not a flat. This is _kinda_ the case in Australia, but there isn’t such a stigma. “Flat” tends to mean an older or smaller one, and many people have no problem with describing their own flats as such. Some 1920s blocks even have the name “Such-and such Flats” proudly rendered on the front wall. The traditional Australian word, as has been pointed out, is flat. However, since the 1970s the term “unit” (or “home unit”) has been creeping in, and now the US “apartment” is wiidely used. I tend to think of a flat as anything in a suburban block up until the 1970s (the typical example being the 1960s red brick three storey walk-up “sixpack”). After that, flats became bigger and slightly more luxurious (possibly as a result of increased prices for free-standing houses), and that’s when the term “unit” took off. The new late 90s and 2000s neo-modernist blocks in the inner city brimming with metrosexuals tend to be “apartments”. These are very flash, but often smaller than “units” which are still being built in the outer suburbs. Then there is a “granny flat” which can be _any_ sort of small dwelling attached to another larger one, usually in the backyard. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/12 "2004-10-15T17:16:09Z")
> [@gum](#): > > What’s a ‘flat’ for English speakers when talking about houses? > > How do you call living quarters in a high building? What do you call a high building? > > The reason I ask, is: We use the English word ‘flat’ [pronounced the English way - it’s not a Dutch word] to describe an apartment in a building with more than, say, 6 floors. > We _also_ use ‘flat’ to describe a high building. > > I mean, that’s weird, isn’t it? How can something be flat _and_ high? 🙂 > > I think we’re totally wrong in using it and it baffles me as to where it came from. > > Thanks. In English the use of a part for the whole or vice versa is known as Synecdoche. So flat, applied to one apartment, becomes the term applied to the whole building in which flats are located. It’s an extremely common rhetorical device in everyday speech. In the U.S. a bedsit is usually known as a studio apartment. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/13 "2004-10-15T20:14:06Z")
geez. Thanks all. So, to call ‘a block of flats’ a ‘flat’ is plain silly? I mean, we say: You can’t see that windmill _[hehehe]_ because that ‘flat’ is in front of it. [meaning a high building with lots of appartments] I wonder where we got that misunderstanding. There’s _no_ Dutch word for - ahem- flat. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/14 "2004-10-15T20:19:37Z")
Here in the Western U.S. a ‘flat’ is a quaint foreign word to describe a residence. I have never in my life heard the word flat in that context from someone with an American accent, and it would be sufficently wierd as to cause a serious double take if I ever did. ---
**Author:** ![DantesTenth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@DantesTenth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DantesTenth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-meaning-of-the-word-flat/269321/15 "2004-10-15T20:55:36Z")
When I lived in SF (80’s), these terms were NOT interchangeable. The difference lies in where one would be when one walked outside the front door - an apartment opens to a common hall, a flat opens to the outside. A quick google on “san franciso flat” indicates the term is still in use, if not a universally as it was then.