Word of the day · Saturday, October 24, 2026

flirs

noun, plural

Plural of FLIR, forward-looking infrared, a camera system that builds an image from heat instead of visible light.

Where it comes from

An acronym from military aviation in the 1960s and 1970s that became an ordinary word.

Worth knowing

FLIR cameras are mounted on aircraft, ships and rescue helicopters. Because they read heat, they can spot a person in darkness, smoke or light fog.

By the letters

• 5letters
• 1vowels (A E I O U)
• noneuncommon letters
• 5different letters

Playing it

Acronyms that turn into words, like LASER, RADAR, SCUBA and FLIR, are worth learning because they often take an S like any other noun.

One letter away

Words you get by changing a single letter, the steps of a word ladder.

• fairs
• flics
• flies
• flims
• flips
• flirt
• flits
• flors

In Unsaid

FLIRS was word of the day number 6 in Unsaid, a falling-letter word game where every player gets the same word on the same date. As a word it scores 500 points. Under the current rules, spelling it as the word of the day is worth a bonus of 9,000 reading down or 6,750 reading across, before any streak. How the bonus works.