as in speck
a very small piece
surreptitiously removed a flyspeck of dirt from the china
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Recent Examples of flyspeck
That’s a flyspeck in a galaxy that measures 100,000 light years across and a universe that is a staggering 94 billion light years.
—
Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 21 Dec. 2022
Travelers jumping into the West Texas badlands from Mexico through Candelaria, a flyspeck village 50 miles up two-lane blacktop northwest of Presidio, might be deceived by the prevailing verdant quiet.
—Dudley Althaus, San Antonio Express-News, 26 June 2021
But with a thousand islands scattered along their country’s jade-green Adriatic coast, from deserted flyspecks to hipster outposts, there’s no shortage of places to lick one’s wounds—or bask in silver-medal glory.
—Anja Mutić, WSJ, 19 July 2018
Compared to this, Comcast is a flyspeck, and Charter hasn’t even gotten started.
—David Dayen, The New Republic, 30 Apr. 2018
Amid these forces, Fed rate hikes are a relative flyspeck, says Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae.
—Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 14 June 2017
Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 21 Dec. 2022
Travelers jumping into the West Texas badlands from Mexico through Candelaria, a flyspeck village 50 miles up two-lane blacktop northwest of Presidio, might be deceived by the prevailing verdant quiet.
—Dudley Althaus, San Antonio Express-News, 26 June 2021
But with a thousand islands scattered along their country’s jade-green Adriatic coast, from deserted flyspecks to hipster outposts, there’s no shortage of places to lick one’s wounds—or bask in silver-medal glory.
—Anja Mutić, WSJ, 19 July 2018
Compared to this, Comcast is a flyspeck, and Charter hasn’t even gotten started.
—David Dayen, The New Republic, 30 Apr. 2018
Amid these forces, Fed rate hikes are a relative flyspeck, says Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae.
—Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 14 June 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flyspeck
Noun
-
Their long, silvery-blue spiral arms are peppered with bright knots and specks, the telltale signposts of active, messy astrophysics in progress.—
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry,
Space.com,
8 Jan. 2026
-
Pure black or white floors show every speck of dust.—
Marisa Suzanne Martin,
The Spruce,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
López reportedly found flecks of gold while digging wild onions, sparking an early gold rush.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacbee.com,
26 Dec. 2025
-
Shiny and dark evergreen foliage is held aloft on strong, arching stems mottled with purple flecks.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
21 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
The sensor supports 13-bit output, allowing richer color representation and smoother tonal transitions.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Jan. 2026
-
And probably died a little bit more when the Tyler Loop field goal that would have sent him home — maybe for good — was in the air before drifting wide right.—
Mike Lupica,
New York Daily News,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Rather than being powered by nuclear fusion, as normal stars are, dark stars are thought to have been powered by the annihilation of dark matter particles.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
15 Jan. 2026
-
Slide the be-socked yardstick under the refrigerator and move it back and forth to pick up dust, dirt, and other fine particles.—
Jolie Kerr,
Better Homes & Gardens,
14 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
This is what eye patches are for, and these are the ones in Stewart’s rotation.—
Tamim Alnuweiri,
InStyle,
14 Jan. 2026
-
Without good air circulation, blades suffocate and die back, leaving slimy, brow,n or black patches.—
Barbara Gillette,
The Spruce,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Jaffery said that the Latino population relies heavily on corn masa products in their daily diet rather than flour and other grain products that are enriched with folic acid.—
Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado
January 12,
Sacbee.com,
12 Jan. 2026
-
Under this model, grain boundaries act as barriers to dislocations, the microscopic defects that drive deformation.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Built in 1953 from scrap lumber, Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In remains the town’s most iconic food stop, known for its cheeky signage and nostalgic burgers and milkshakes.—
Daria Bachmann,
Travel + Leisure,
11 Jan. 2026
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In fact, dropping one aimless and often hard to hear scrap of trivia after another as winners walked to the stage, Frazier and Malkin proved a distraction at best.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Iman commemorated the event in a second Instagram post with snippets of the pair during their wedding ceremony at St James' Episcopal Church in Florence, Italy, on June 6, 1992.—
Ilana Kaplan,
PEOPLE,
8 Jan. 2026
-
They can be found on our YouTube channel, which is Echoes of the City KC, along with other shorts and snippets of the other documentaries.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Flyspeck.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flyspeck. Accessed 17 Jan. 2026.
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