flu

See also: 'flu

English

Alternative forms

• 'flu (dated)
• floo (dated)

Etymology

Clipping of influenza.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fluː/
• (Australian) IPA^(key): /flʉː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: flew, flue

Noun

flu (usually uncountable, plural flus)

1. Influenza.

   catch flu

   get over the flu

   transmit flu

   He missed work because he caught the flu.

   Every winter, doctors warn about seasonal flu.

   She felt like she had the flu, with aches and fever.

   • 2025 January 27, Edward Helmore, “First outbreak of rare bird flu strain reported at California poultry farm”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 25 March 2025:

     Authorities said the discovery of H5N9 bird flu in poultry came alongside the detection of the more common H5N1 strain on the same farm in Merced county, California, and that almost 119,000 birds on the farm had been killed since early December.

2. (informal) Stomach flu.

Usage notes

• Can be used with or without the definite article: I have the flu or I have flu

Synonyms

• (influenza): grippe, grip

Derived terms

• 24-hour flu
• antiflu
• Asian flu
• avian flu
• benzo flu
• bird flu
• blue flu
• brown bottle flu
• camel flu
• carb flu
• cocktail flu
• con flu
• diplomatic flu
• Egyptian flu
• Ekka flu
• executive flu
• fluey
• flu friend
• fluish
• flulike
• Flu Manchu
• flu mask
• flunami
• flu party
• flurona
• flu shot
• freshers' flu
• fuck flu
• gastric flu
• hog flu
• Hong Kong flu
• keto flu
• kung flu
• man flu
• Mexican flu
• Navajo flu
• pig flu
• piggy flu
• Russian flu
• Spanish flu
• stomach flu
• superflu
• swine flu
• Teflon flu
• tomato flu
• Wu flu
• Wuhan flu
• yuppie flu

Descendants

• → Samoan: fulū

Translations

influenza

• Afrikaans: griep
• Albanian: grip (sq) m
• Arabic: إِنْفْلُوِنْزَا f (ʔinfluwinzā)

  North Levantine Arabic: گريب m (grīb)

• Armenian: գրիպ (hy) (grip)
• Azerbaijani: qrip (az)
• Belarusian: грып m (hryp)
• Bengali: ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জা (bn) (inphluẏenja), ফ্লু (bn) (phlu)
• Bulgarian: грип (bg) m (grip), инфлуе́нца (bg) f (influénca)
• Burmese: တုတ်ကွေးရောဂါ (tutkwe:rau:ga)
• Catalan: grip (ca) f
• Chamicuro: e'tes̈huli
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 流行性感冒 (zh) (liúxíngxìnggǎnmào), 流感 (zh) (liúgǎn)

• Czech: chřipka (cs) f
• Danish: influenza (da) c
• Dutch: griep (nl) f
• Esperanto: gripo
• Estonian: gripp
• Finnish: influenssa (fi)
• French: grippe (fr) f
• Galician: gripe (gl) f, gripio m, gripallo m, gripalleira f, gripallada f, gripaxe f
• Georgian: გრიპი (griṗi)
• German: Grippe (de) f
• Greek: γρίπη (el) f (grípi)
• Hebrew: שפעת (he) f (shapa'at)
• Hindi: इनफ़्लुएंज़ा (influenzā)
• Hungarian: influenza (hu)
• Icelandic: flensa (is) f, inflúensa (is) f
• Indonesian: influenza (id), flu (id)
• Italian: influenza (it) f
• Japanese: (general) インフルエンザ (ja) (infuruenza); (abbr) インフル (ja) (infuru); (medical) 流行性感冒 (ja) (ryūkōsē-kanbō)
• Kannada: ಇನ್ಫ್ಲುಯೆನ್ಜ (inphluyenja)
• Kazakh: тұмау (tūmau)
• Khmer: ជំងឺគ្រុនផ្ដាសាយ (cumŋɨɨ krun pdaahsaay), គ្រុនផ្ដាសាយ (krun pdaahsaay)
• Korean: 인플루엔자 (ko) (inpeulluenja)
• Kyrgyz: грипп (ky) (gripp), тумоо (ky) (tumoo)
• Lao: ໄຂ້ຫວັດໃຫຍ່ (khai huat h)
• Latin: influentia f
• Latvian: gripa f
• Lithuanian: gripas m
• Luxembourgish: Gripp (lb) f
• Macedonian: грип m (grip)
• Malay: influenza
• Malayalam: ഇൻഫ്ലുവെൻസ (iṉphluveṉsa)
• Marshallese: būļu
• Mongolian: томуу (mn) (tomuu), ханиад (mn) (xaniad)
• Naga:

  Khiamniungan Naga: vēimū

• Navajo: tahoniigááh
• Nepali: रुघा (rughā)
• Norman: grippe f
• Persian: انفلوانزا (fa) (anfoluânzâ)
• Polish: grypa (pl) f
• Portuguese: gripe (pt) f
• Romanian: gripă (ro)
• Russian: грипп (ru) m (gripp), инфлюэ́нца (ru) f (infljuénca)
• Samoan: fulū
• Scottish Gaelic: cnatan mòr m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: грип m, инфлуенца f

  Latin: grip m, influenca (sh) f

• Slovak: chrípka (sk) f
• Slovene: gripa (sl) f
• Spanish: gripe (es) f, gripa (es) f, gripola f (El Salvador)
• Swedish: influensa (sv) c, flunsa (sv) c
• Tagalog: trangkaso
• Tajik: грипп (gripp)
• Tamil: இன்ஃபுளுவென்சா (iṉfuḷuveṉcā)
• Tatar: грипп (gripp)
• Telugu: ఫ్లూ (phlū)
• Thai: ไข้หวัดใหญ่ (th) (kâi wàt yài)
• Tibetan: ཚད་རིམས། (tshad rims)
• Turkish: grip (tr)
• Turkmen: grip
• Ukrainian: грип m (hryp)
• Urdu: انفلوئنزا (influenzā), نزلہ
• Uzbek: gripp (uz)
• Vietnamese: bệnh cúm, cúm (vi)
• Yiddish: גריפּע f (gripe)
• Zulu: imfuluwenza class 9

See also

• catarrh

See also

• flu-flu (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• -ful, ULF

Cornish

Etymology

Borrowed from English flu.

Noun

flu f (uncountable)

1. influenza

   Synonyms: anwosva, terthen

References

• “flu” in Cornish Dictionary / Gerlyver Kernewek, Akademi Kernewek.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English flu (“influenza”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fly/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

Noun

flu m (uncountable)

1. (Quebec) diarrhea

Indonesian

Noun

flu (plural flu-flu)

1. flu

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flʉː/

Etymology 1

Related to the verb fly (“to fly”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

flu n (definite singular fluet, indefinite plural flu, definite plural flua)

1. (countable and uncountable, fishing) bait that is strewn out over the surface to attract fish

Verb

flu (present tense flur, past tense fludde, past participle flutt/fludd, passive infinitive fluast, present participle fluande, imperative flu)

1. (intransitive) to fish using such a technique

Alternative forms

• flua, flue

Etymology 2

From Old Norse flúð.

Alternative forms

• flud (non-standard since 1917)

Noun

flu f (definite singular flua, indefinite plural fluer, definite plural fluene)

1. a bank or skerry which is underwater at high tide

Related terms

• flod
• flyte

References

• “flu” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• ful, Ulf

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French flou.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʎu/

Adjective

flu

1. fuzzy
2. (photography) blurred, out of focus