flatfooted

1. 1.

   unprepared and unable to react quickly

   “the new product caught their competitors flat-footed”

   Synonymsflat-footed

   Similarunready
2. 2.

   having broad flat feet that usually turn outward

   “a slow flat-footed walk”

   Synonymsflat-footed

   Similarsplayfooted
3. 3.

   with feet flat on the ground; not tiptoe

   Synonymsflat-footed

   Similarfooted
4. 4.

   forthright and explicit

   “a flat-footed refusal”

   Synonymsflat-footed

   Similardirect

   colloquialism

Questions about flatfooted

What does flatfooted mean?

flatfooted means "unprepared and unable to react quickly". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in flatfooted?

flatfooted has 3 syllables: flat-foo-ted. The stress falls on "flat".

What is another word for flatfooted?

Close synonyms include flat-footed, flat-footed, flat-footed, flat-footed. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is flatfooted a common word?

flatfooted is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.