FLATTENS Synonyms: 116 Similar and Opposite Words

flattens

verb

present tense third-person singular of flatten

as in smooths

to make free from breaks, curves, or bumps flattened out the wrinkled paper before attempting to trace the pattern

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as in overcomes

to defeat by a large margin if you don't understand the rules, you're going to get flattened when you try to play

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of flattens The ScanMax 320 automatically flattens curved book pages digitally, ensuring clean, flat text without requiring you to tear pages out or manually edit them. — New Atlas, 18 Aug. 2026 That notion flattens a complex record and turns history into a morality play of angels and demons. — Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026 Catherine flattens him in the kitchen, burying her death syringe in his eyeball. — Erin Qualey, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2026 When every review begins with something real that can be modified in the room, the layers that existed to summarize and relay lose their function, and the structure flattens without a reorganization memo. — Andrew Sorohan, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026 Whether the fabric thins or the loop texture flattens after any cleaning attempt — the point to stop and call an upholstery professional. — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 22 July 2026 Japanese is a high-context language, meaning that more can be conveyed with less; an English translation naturally bloats the word count and flattens the cultural context. — Literary Hub, 13 July 2026 Franklyn-Miller is certainly pretty, serving as a fine face for this story, but the screenplay (by Erwin, Diederik Hoogstraten and Tom Provost) flattens his character into a basic cookie-cutter hero. — Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026 The scroll has been digitally unwrapped using a technique pioneered by Seales called Volume Cartographer, which takes scans of a 3D manuscript, layer by layer, and then effectively flattens these into 2D images that can then be read. — Claire Cameron, Scientific American, 26 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for flattens

Verb

At its center is wild soybean extract fermented for a whopping 120 hours, a process that breaks down the ingredient's components and creates a lightweight, nourishing formula that smooths the look of skin texture and keeps excess sebum in check.

— Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 20 Aug. 2026
This method smooths the rocks and rounds the edges, giving them a more polished look and feel.

— BestReviews, Mercury News, 5 Aug. 2026

Definition of smooths

Verb

Used in the group’s previous drone research, this landing gear disperses energy to reduce impact and overcomes multiple engineering challenges.

— Tim Hornyak, IEEE Spectrum, 18 Aug. 2026
Somaliland is proximate and overcomes some of the limitations imposed by other regional hosts like Djibouti and Middle East partners.

— Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of overcomes

Verb

Every trick that gamed the old algorithm is now detected, and most of it actively buries your content.

— Tammy Homegardner, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Hollis buries herself in work in an attempt to escape her complicated grief, while aspiring filmmaker Caroline copes by making snarky remarks and bristling at her mom's efforts to connect.

— Clarissa Cruz, Entertainment Weekly, 16 June 2026

Definition of buries

Verb

And that’s a lot of energy to shed as a vehicle comes blaring back into Earth’s thick atmosphere, a process that typically annihilates objects returning from space unless they are precisely designed to survive the trip.

— Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 16 July 2026
Matter is so dominant in our universe that any antimatter typically encounters matter quickly and annihilates.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 15 June 2026

Definition of annihilates

Verb

The writing — and its sometimes baffling aversion to the source material — is at the heart of the problem, but there’s plenty of blame to go around, from hammy acting to a cartoonish tone that smothers the whole affair.

— James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 11 Aug. 2026
Up in the attic, a melty miasma smothers the thick winter coats, which hurt me to even look at.

— Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 15 June 2026

Definition of smothers

Verb

And yet, in Yoon’s hands, a character’s suffering never overwhelms their capacity for tenderness.

— Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic, 30 July 2026
One person has died and rescues are underway as catastrophic flooding overwhelms the Hill Country, a little more than a year after the July 4 floods killed more than 130 people in Central Texas.

— Mary Ella Hastings July 16, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 July 2026

Definition of overwhelms

Verb

Short’s Povich ultimately upsets both men by revealing Tracy Morgan as the true father of McNearney’s child.

— Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 22 Aug. 2026
Potential tax hike upsets longtime Jersey City residents A group of upset people tried to steal the spotlight at a prescheduled rally Solomon attended Monday to discuss climate change.

— Kristie Keleshian, CBS News, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of upsets

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“Flattens.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flattens. Accessed 27 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of flattens

verb

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