flu

• 'flu (dated)
• floo (dated)

Clipping of influenza.

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: flew, flue

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.

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

• (influenza): grippe, grip

• catarrh

• flu-flu (etymologically unrelated)

• -ful, ULF

Borrowed from English flu (“influenza”).

• IPA^(key): /fly/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

flu m (uncountable)

1. (Quebec) diarrhea

flu (plural flu-flu)

1. flu

• IPA^(key): /flʉː/

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

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

• flua, flue

From Old Norse flúð.

• flud (non-standard since 1917)

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

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

• flod
• flyte

• “flu” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• ful, Ulf

Borrowed from French flou.

• IPA^(key): /fʎu/

flu

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