FLUKE
What does "FLUKE" mean?
An unexpected stroke of luck or a chance success.
Meanings
- A lucky or surprising result achieved by chance rather than skill. Winning on his first try was a complete fluke.
- Either of the two lobes of a whale's tail. The humpback raised its flukes and slid beneath the surface.
- A flat parasitic worm, such as the liver fluke. The sheep were treated for liver fluke after the wet summer. technical
- The broad triangular blade at the end of an anchor's arm that digs into the seabed. The anchor's fluke caught firmly in the sand. technical
Did you know?
- The 'lucky break' meaning of fluke was born at the billiards table: in the 1800s a fluke was a pocketed shot the player never aimed for, and the slang spread from the green baize into everyday English.
Word origin
The 'lucky chance' sense arose in 19th-century billiards slang for an accidental winning shot; the worm and whale-tail senses come from older, separate words, including Old English 'floc' for a flatfish.
Remember it
FLUKE rhymes with 'luck' stretched out - and a fluke is luck you didn't earn.
A little poem
The cue slipped, the ball found its hole-
he bowed as if he'd planned the whole.
couplet
Wordplay
- I caught a flatfish, a whale dove showing its tail, and I won the lottery - all in one day. My friend called it a fluke. I said which one?
What it teaches
Call your win a fluke before others do; honesty about luck is what lets you find the skill.
Quick facts
What does FLUKE mean?
An unexpected stroke of luck or a chance success.
Is FLUKE a valid word?
Yes — FLUKE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is FLUKE?
FLUKE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does FLUKE come from?
The 'lucky chance' sense arose in 19th-century billiards slang for an accidental winning shot; the worm and whale-tail senses come from older, separate words, including Old English 'floc' for a flatfish.
What can FLUKE teach us?
Call your win a fluke before others do; honesty about luck is what lets you find the skill.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.