How do you use the word "flag" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "flag": The flag is up. Keep sight of the flag.

Flag Meaning

/flæɡ/

Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.

nounThe design that could be placed on a flag, typically a rectangular graphic that is used to represent an entity (like a country, organisation or group of people) or an idea.

Sentence Examples

The flag is up.

Keep sight of the flag.

The French flag is blue, white and red.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

sag

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The referee had to ____ the player for a foul, holding up a yellow card.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The national ____ was raised at the start of the ceremony as the anthem was being played.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"The vote in the Bundestag (parliament) on Thursday makes defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag. […] The new law also applies to acts of defilement besides burning, such as publicly ripping a flag up." — 2020 May 15, “Burning EU and other flags can now bring German jail term”, in BBC, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2025:

"This will be used as a help message if the user passes in the --help flag, like so: […]" — 2021, Angel Sola Orbaiceta, Hardcore Programming for Mechanical Engineers, pages 19–2:

"I was shooting an IFR approach down the San Francisco slot, when all of a sudden the ILS flag popped up." — 1966, Barry J. Schiff, All about Flying: An Introduction to the World of Flying, page 72:

"[…] and then the OFF flag popped up and the needle went dead." — 1980, Paul Garrison, Flying VFR in marginal weather, page 139:

"A flag of P is a sequence (F₀, F₁, ..., Fₘ) of faces of P such that dim Fᵢ = i for each i and Fᵢ is a side of Fᵢ₊₁ for each i < m.[…]A regular polytope in X is a polytope P in X whose group of symmetries in

acts transitively on its flags." — 1994, John Ratcliffe, Foundations of Hyperbolic Manifolds, page 230:

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