flemish

flemish — adjective

IPA/ˈflem.ɪʃ/
KK[flˈɛmɪʃ]IPA/ˈflem.ɪʃ/
  • flemishpositive
  • more flemishcomparative
  • most flemishsuperlative

1. connected with Belgium's northern region of Flanders, its people, culture, or th

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

connected with Belgium's northern region of Flanders, its people, culture, or the Dutch spoken there

Example

Valentina bought a small Flemish lace cloth at the market in Bruges.

collocation: Flemish lace

The museum displayed several Flemish paintings beside works from Italy.

collocation: Flemish paintings

Common collocations
  • Flemish art
  • Flemish baker
  • Flemish lace
  • Flemish painting
  • Flemish town

Usage Note

Use Flemish before a noun for things linked to Flanders. For the language or the people, English also uses Flemish as a noun.

Common Mistakes

He is a Flemish.
He is Flemish.' or 'He is a Fleming.
Flemish as an adjective does not take 'a' before a person.

flemish — noun

IPA/ˈflemɪʃ/
KK[flˈɛmɪʃ]IPA/ˈflemɪʃ/

Word family

  • Flanders
    proper nounA2
  • Fleming
    nounB1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Flemish, Belgian, Dutch, and Walloon can all appear in discussions of Belgium, but they point to different things. Flemish is the most specific here: it refers to Flanders in the north of Belgium, its people, its culture, or the Dutch spoken there. Belgian is broader and covers the whole country, including both Flanders and Wallonia. Dutch usually points to the Netherlands or to the Dutch language in general, though it can also include the Belgian variety when the topic is linguistic. Walloon refers to the French-speaking southern part of Belgium. A painter from Antwerp can be Flemish and Belgian, but not Walloon.

Belgian ↗Dutch ↗Walloon

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • in Flemish
  • the Flemish

Etymology

West GermanicDutchEnglish

Flemish comes from Flanders, the English name of the northern Belgian region, together with the ending -ish, which often forms adjectives of origin. English took the word through Middle English from older West Germanic forms related to Dutch. Over time it came to name the region's people, culture, and the Dutch spoken there.