# fluke

Pronunciation: say "FLOOK" US /fluk/, UK /fluːk/

## Noun

1. A lucky or unlikely event that would probably never happen again.
   - Simple: Something lucky or strange that happens by chance and probably will not happen again.
   - _Critics called her first hit a fluke, but her second album proved them wrong._
   - _By some fluke, the letter reached us even though the address was wrong._
2. A parasitic flatworm of the class Trematoda, a group related to the tapeworms of the class Cestoda.
   - Simple: A small flat worm, related to the tapeworm, that lives inside people or animals.
   - _Under the microscope, the fluke clung to the tissue with its suckers._
   - _Farmers drain wet pastures to protect their sheep from flukes._
3. Either of the two lobes that form the tail of a whale or a similar animal.
   - Simple: One of the two halves of the tail of a whale or a similar animal.
   - _Researchers identify individual humpbacks by the patterns on the underside of their flukes._
   - _With a slap of its broad fluke, the whale sent spray across the deck._
4. The summer flounder, the flatfish Paralichthys dentatus.
   - Simple: A kind of flat fish called the summer flounder.
   - _Anglers drifting over the sandy bottom hoped to hook a keeper fluke._
   - _The fish market had fresh fluke from the morning boats._
6. A pointed, winglike blade or barb, especially one at the end of an anchor arm that digs into the bottom.
   - Simple: A pointed blade on an anchor or harpoon that catches and holds.
   - _The crew couldn't raise the anchor because a fluke had hooked an old cable on the bottom._
   - _Broad flukes help an anchor hold in soft mud._

## Verb

5. To achieve something, such as a win or a shot, by luck rather than skill.
   - Simple: To succeed by luck, not skill.
   - _They fluked a draw against the league leaders with a last-minute deflection._
   - _She had no idea of the answer but managed to fluke the right one and win the quiz._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A metal hook on the head of certain staff weapons such as the bill, shaped differently for grappling or for piercing armor when swung.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 5** — Of unknown origin, perhaps dialectal. It seems originally to have referred to a lucky shot at billiards, and may be connected with the whale's flukes, which whales use to move rapidly.
**Meanings 2, 4** — In Old English the word was flōc, meaning "flatfish." It is usually grouped with Germanic words for flat things, such as German flach ("flat"), and traced to Proto-Germanic *flakaz ("flat"), though that link is uncertain.
**Meanings 3, 6** — Recorded from the mid-16th century in the sense "anchor blade". It is probably the same word as fluke ("flatfish") or else a related word for something flat (compare Proto-Germanic *flakaz); a link with Low German words for "wing" has also been suggested.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fluke (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).