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flow

SayFLOH/floʊ//fləʊ/

Verbflows, flowing, flowed

Noun pluralflows

22 meanings of flow

Practice

  1. 1
    move as liquidverbintransitive
    To run or stream from one point to another in the manner of a fluid.

    Streams flow down from the melting glaciers each spring.

    The water flowed steadily through the narrow channel.

    UsageThe past tense and past participle are flowed (not incorrect: flown). Usually with a direction: flow into, flow through, flow down.

    Similarrun, pour, course, stream, rush

  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The steady, continuous movement of a liquid, gas, or something pictured as flowing, such as people, traffic, or information.

    The steady flow of the mountain stream powered the old mill.

    The flow of conversation slowed when the topic turned serious.

    UsageUsually a flow of or the flow of something: the flow of traffic, a flow of ideas.

    Note

    The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1898) has a man scolding "with such a loud flow of words." Speech, traffic, money and ideas all flow as readily as water does.

  3. 3
    amount movingnouncountable or uncountable
    The quantity of fluid that moves, or the rate at which fluid moves past a point.

    The meter records the flow through the pipe in liters per minute.

    After weeks without rain, the creek's flow was down to a few gallons a minute.

    Similarcirculation, discharge

  4. 4
    verbintransitive
    To proceed or fit together smoothly, gracefully, or without interruption.

    Good transitions help paragraphs flow into one another.

    The melody flowed seamlessly into the next song.

    UsageOften in the negative about writing: it doesn't flow. Parts flow into one another.

    Similarblend, merge, segue, glide

    Note

    The participle flowing serves as an adjective of praise for verse, as when Dryden's translation of Virgil (1697) calls the poet "sweet and flowing in his hexameters."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  5. 5
    nouncountable or uncountable
    A smooth, continuous quality, especially in movement, writing, or speech.

    The essay lacked flow, jumping awkwardly between unrelated ideas.

    Her speech had a graceful flow that held the audience.

    Similarfluency, fluidity, rhythm, continuity, coherence

  6. 6
    come fromverbintransitive
    To proceed or issue forth from a source; to emanate.

    Confidence seemed to flow from every word he spoke.

    Benefits flowed from the new agreement almost immediately.

    UsageUsually with from naming the source: benefits flow from the agreement.

    Similaremanate, stem, spring, issue, arise

    Note

    Here nothing liquid moves. What travels is wealth, courtesy or consequence, and the verb nearly always takes from to name where it begins: wealth flows from industry. Milton writes in Paradise Lost (1667) of "those thousand decencies that daily flow / From all her words and actions."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. christs.cam.ac.uk
    • The quoted words occur in Milton's Paradise Lost; Adam is the character speaking. gutenberg.org
    • The quotation reproduces the poem's wording. gutenberg.org
  7. 7
    software stepsnouncountable or uncountable
    The sequence of steps or screens in a piece of software that a user or the program goes through to complete a task, such as signing up or paying.

    The team redesigned the onboarding flow to reduce drop-offs.

    Each error in the payment flow was logged for review.

    UsageUsually after a word naming the task: login flow, signup flow, payment flow.

    Similarprocess, sequence

    Note

    Software teams name a flow after the task it serves: a login flow, a search flow, a signup flow. It covers the path a user takes through the steps as much as the program's own logic, and tracking how people move through a multi-step flow is routine work.

  8. 8
    rapping skillnouncountable or uncountable
    The ability to rap skillfully and smoothly in time with a beat.

    His flow rides the beat so smoothly that every line lands perfectly.

    Critics praised her flow on the album's opening track.

    UsageUsually with a possessive: his flow, her flow.

    Similardelivery, cadence

    Note

    Rap's own word for delivery: how a rapper's words ride the beat, judged apart from the production behind them. A mixtape can have mediocre beats and a flow that is "on point." It is a possessive word (my flow, his flow), and 50 Cent's "In da Club" (2003) uses it as a boast alongside style.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  9. 9
    hang looselyverbintransitive
    To hang loosely and wave, as hair or fabric moves in the wind.

    The bride's veil flowed behind her down the aisle.

    Loose robes flow around the dancers as they spin.

    UsageMost familiar as flowing before a noun: flowing hair, a flowing robe.

    Similarbillow, stream, trail, swirl, flutter

    Note

    Hair and cloth are what move in this sense, and they move without going anywhere. Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius in The Federalist (1788), pictures "the imperial purple flowing in his train." There the word adds grandeur as well as motion.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of flow apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 2–3, 5, 7–8, 10–11, 14

This noun grew out of the verb in Middle English, where it was flowe. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi gave it its psychology sense, a "state of focus," in 1975.

Meanings 1, 4, 6, 9, 12–13, 15–16

From Middle English flowen, from Old English flōwan ("to flow"), going back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *plew- ("to fly, flow, run"). It is related to Dutch vloeien and West Frisian floeie, and to English float, but despite the similarity it is not related to Latin fluō.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts