Flagrant - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

fla·grant

Audio Help [fley-gruh

nt] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	shockingly noticeable or evident; obvious; glaring: a flagrant error.

2.	notorious; scandalous: a flagrant crime; a flagrant offender.

3.	Archaic. blazing, burning, or glowing.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME < L flagrant- (s. of flagrāns), prp. of flagrāre to burn; see -ant

]

—Related forms

fla·gran·cy, flagrance, fla·grant·ness, noun

fla·grant·ly, adverb

—Synonyms 2. disgraceful, monstrous, egregious. Flagrant, glaring, gross, outrageous, rank are adjectives suggesting extreme offensiveness. Flagrant, with a root sense of flaming or flaring, suggests evil or immorality so evident that it cannot be ignored or overlooked: a flagrant violation of the law. Glaring, meaning “shining brightly,” is similar to flagrant in emphasizing conspicuousness but usually lacks the imputation of immorality: a glaring error in computing the interest. Gross, which basically signifies excessive size, is even more negative in implication than the foregoing two terms, suggesting a mistake or impropriety of major proportions: a gross miscarriage of justice. Outrageous describes acts so far beyond the limits of decent behavior or accepted standards as to be totally insupportable: an outrageous abuse of the public trust. Rank, with its suggestion of bad odor, describes open offensiveness of the most objectionable kind, inviting total and unalloyed disapprobation: rank dishonesty, stinking to high heaven; Only rank stupidity would countenance such a step.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Flagrant

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fla·grant Audio Help (flā'grənt) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Conspicuously bad, offensive, or reprehensible: a flagrant miscarriage of justice; flagrant cases of wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. See Usage Note at blatant.
Obsolete Flaming; blazing.

[Latin flagrāns, flagrant-, present participle of flagrāre, to burn; see bhel-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

fla'gran·cy, fla'grance n., fla'grant·ly adv.

Synonyms: These adjectives refer to what is conspicuously bad or offensive. Flagrant applies to what is so offensive that it cannot escape notice: flagrant disregard for the law.
What is glaring is blatantly and painfully manifest: a glaring error; glaring contradictions.
Gross suggests a magnitude of offense or failing that cannot be condoned or forgiven: gross ineptitude; gross injustice.
What is egregious is outrageously bad: an egregious lie.
Rank implies that the term it qualifies is as indicated to an extreme, violent, or gross degree: rank stupidity; rank treachery.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
flagrant

c.1500, "resplendent," from L. flagrantem (nom. flagrans) "burning," prp. of flagrare "to burn," from L. root *flag-, corresponding to PIE *bhleg- (cf. Gk. phlegein "to burn, scorch," O.E. blæc "black"). Sense of "glaringly offensive" first recorded 1706, probably from common legalese phrase in flagrante delicto "red-handed," lit. "with the crime still blazing."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

flagrant
adjective
conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible; "a crying shame"; "an egregious lie"; "flagrant violation of human rights"; "a glaring error"; "gross ineptitude"; "gross injustice"; "rank treachery" [syn: crying]

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
flagrant [ˈfleigrənt] adjective

(usually of something bad) very obvious; easily seen
Example: flagrant injustice

Arabic:	صارِخ، فاضِح، واضِح
Chinese (Simplified):	公然的
Chinese (Traditional):	明顯的﹐顯而易見的
Czech:	zjevný, křiklavý
Danish:	åbenlys
Dutch:	flagrant
Estonian:	karjuv
Finnish:	räikeä
French:	flagrant
German:	offenkundig
Greek:	κατάφωρος
Hungarian:	kirívó, égbekiáltó
Icelandic:	augljós og hneykslanlegur
Indonesian:	jelas
Italian:	flagrante

Japanese:	目にあまる
Korean:	극악한
Latvian:	kliedzošs; brēcošs; drausmīgs
Lithuanian:	akivaizdus, baisus
Norwegian:	skrikende, skamløs; utilslørt
Polish:	skandaliczny, rażący
Portuguese (Brazil):	flagrante
Portuguese (Portugal):	flagrante
Romanian:	flagrant
Russian:	возмутительный
Slovak:	nápadný, do očí bijúci
Slovenian:	očiten
Spanish:	flagrante
Swedish:	flagrant, uppenbar, skändlig
Turkish:	apaçık, gün gibi ortada

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Flagrant

A*tro"cious\, a. [L. atrox, atrocis, cruel, fierce: cf. F. atroce.]

1. Extremely heinous; full of enormous wickedness; as, atrocious quilt or deeds.

2. Characterized by, or expressing, great atrocity.

Revelations . . . so atrocious that nothing in history approaches them. --De Quincey.

3. Very grievous or violent; terrible; as, atrocious distempers. [Obs.] --Cheyne.

Syn: Atrocious, Flagitious, Flagrant.

Usage: Flagitious points to an act as grossly wicked and vile; as, a flagitious proposal. Flagrant marks the vivid impression made upon the mind by something strikingly wrong or erroneous; as, a flagrant misrepresentation; a flagrant violation of duty. Atrocious represents the act as springing from a violent and savage spirit. If Lord Chatham, instead of saying "the atrocious crime of being a young man," had used either of the other two words, his irony would have lost all its point, in his celebrated reply to Sir Robert Walpole, as reported by Dr. Johnson. -- A*tro"cious*ly, adv. -- A*tro"cious*ness, n.

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