as in sides
a place, space, or direction away from or beyond a central point or line
painted the name of the ship along its flank
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in adjoins
to be adjacent to
the guards flank the center on a football team's offensive line
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of flanks
Joshua M. Davidson, New York Daily News, 11 May 2026
By early June, ash and lava were escaping Pinatubo’s flanks, and an evacuation was ordered, just a few days before the cataclysmic hammer fell.
—Quanta Magazine, 8 May 2026
Thanks to their extensive railway systems, troops could be quickly deployed to one fighting position or another, preventing the enemy from marching around their flanks.
—Matthew S Williams, Interesting Engineering, 1 May 2026
Incidentally, that goal also came when Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue, wingers on opposite flanks on paper, teamed up down the PSG left.
—Michael Cox, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2026
Air tankers and helicopters have been assisting crews to create lines along the flanks of the fire.
—Christa Swanson, CBS News, 26 Apr. 2026
Whittaker scaled Mount Rainier more than 100 times but did not take its familiar flanks for granted.
—Gene Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026
The man was treated for numerous stab wounds to his left and right flanks, according to Boisvert.
—Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 7 Apr. 2026
Up front, this team has serious depth, with Igor Chernyshov and Will Smith rapidly morphing into elite flanks for Celebrini.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 3 Apr. 2026
Julia Sayers Gokhale, Midwest Living, 17 Apr. 2026
This short out-and-back route is the perfect recovery run, with relatively flat terrain that flanks the river.
—Kristine Thomason, Outside, 9 Mar. 2026
But Hawley flanks the familiar creature from the movies with a variety of new monsters that get unleashed in the Maginot crash.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2025
Noun
And given the challenges from both left and right, our best hope is to strengthen a political center that brings together moderates who reject the ideologues on their flanks.
—Joshua M. Davidson, New York Daily News, 11 May 2026
By early June, ash and lava were escaping Pinatubo’s flanks, and an evacuation was ordered, just a few days before the cataclysmic hammer fell.
—Quanta Magazine, 8 May 2026
Thanks to their extensive railway systems, troops could be quickly deployed to one fighting position or another, preventing the enemy from marching around their flanks.
—Matthew S Williams, Interesting Engineering, 1 May 2026
Incidentally, that goal also came when Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue, wingers on opposite flanks on paper, teamed up down the PSG left.
—Michael Cox, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2026
Air tankers and helicopters have been assisting crews to create lines along the flanks of the fire.
—Christa Swanson, CBS News, 26 Apr. 2026
Whittaker scaled Mount Rainier more than 100 times but did not take its familiar flanks for granted.
—Gene Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026
The man was treated for numerous stab wounds to his left and right flanks, according to Boisvert.
—Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 7 Apr. 2026
Up front, this team has serious depth, with Igor Chernyshov and Will Smith rapidly morphing into elite flanks for Celebrini.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 3 Apr. 2026
Verb
The park flanks a tiny stretch of Table Rock Lake, a serpentine reservoir with more than 745 miles of shoreline.
—Julia Sayers Gokhale, Midwest Living, 17 Apr. 2026
This short out-and-back route is the perfect recovery run, with relatively flat terrain that flanks the river.
—Kristine Thomason, Outside, 9 Mar. 2026
But Hawley flanks the familiar creature from the movies with a variety of new monsters that get unleashed in the Maginot crash.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flanks
Noun
-
Meanwhile, on Facebook, posting behavior is correlated on both sides of the partisan divide and has more to do with how active the most partisan users are, prompting casual users to disengage so that those louder voices dominate, making the platform narrower and more ideologically extreme.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
7 May 2026
-
Both sides hired a sprawling team of lawyers for the litigation, with legal expenses likely in the tens of millions of dollars.—
Winston Cho,
HollywoodReporter,
7 May 2026
Verb
-
Investigators say the hiker became stranded after getting lost in the Sampson Mountain Wilderness section of Cherokee National Forest, which adjoins national forests in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.—
Mark Price,
Charlotte Observer,
7 May 2026
-
In the bathroom that adjoins the home gym, a soft-pink marble steals the show.—
Kathryn O’Shea-Evans,
Robb Report,
29 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
This assist also joins his ones for Gabriel away to Newcastle United and Rice at Bournemouth as match-winners.—
Art de Roché,
New York Times,
13 May 2026
-
Expected to be in place to chair the Fed’s next meeting June 16 to 17, Warsh joins a central bank whose policymakers are engaged in a vigorous debate on the direction of interest rates.—
Reuters,
NBC news,
13 May 2026
Verb
-
The French brand spent two years scouting its Shanghai home, which currently neighbors a Louis Vuitton pop-up.—
Lily Templeton,
Footwear News,
3 Sep. 2019
Verb
-
And then there’s the partnership with music mega-star Marc Anthony, which will encompass music, lifestyle programming and long-form content that touches on fashion, hospitality and all parts of the Spanish-language media ecosystem.—
Alex Weprin,
HollywoodReporter,
12 May 2026
-
Returning to Craigh na Dun on her own, Claire touches the center stone and is transported to 1743, three years before the Jacobite defeat.—
Culture Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
12 May 2026
Verb
-
But as the rover attempted to pull out its drill arm, the rock came up with it, having gotten lodged onto the sleeve that surrounds the tool’s bit.—
Adam Kovac,
Scientific American,
7 May 2026
-
Set the scene The hotel’s name comes from the beach grass that surrounds it—perhaps your first clue as to how this summertime escape sits harmoniously among its Long Island coast setting.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
7 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Flanks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flanks. Accessed 14 May. 2026.
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