Meanings
flehmen1
present singular third person flehmens · participle present flehmening · participle past flehmened · past flehmened · alternative flehm · alternative flehman · alternative Flehmen · alternative Flehman
- alternativeAlternative form of flehm.
One can observe mucus dripping from the nostrils of stallions after they flehmen.
1994, Lee Boyd, Katherine Albro Houpt, Przewalski's Horse: The History and Biology of an Endangered Species, page 246
plural flehmens · alternative flehm · alternative flehman · alternative Flehmen · alternative Flehman
- countableespeciallyuncountableFlaring of the lip in mammals, associated with intensive smelling; flehming.
Behaviors recorded included sniffing, flehmen, blowing, avoidance, and penile erections.
2003, IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group, The Living Elephants : Evolutionary Ecology, Behaviour, and Conservation, page 992 more examples
During the preliminary phase of courtship between captive animals, Matthew Gaughwin observed flehmen on a number of occasions when the male sniffed intensely at areas of ground where the female had previously urinated and once when the male had sniffed the female's cloacal region.
2009, Barbara Triggs, Wombats, page 65Ladewig and Hart showed that when a male goat displayed flehmen after investigating female urine containing a tracer material, the urine was found throughout the vomeronasal organ.
2006, Ernst Knobil, Jimmy D. Neill, Knobil and Neill's Physiology of Reproduction, page 2043
Flehmen2
- no pluralnonstandardNonstandard form of flehmen.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
flehmen · verb, noun
- sxuflemmen“to look spiteful”
- Germanflehmen
- Englishflehmen
From German flehmen, from Upper Saxon German flemmen (“to look spiteful”).
Full word history & related roots →Flehmen · noun
Capitalized apparently due to the mistaken belief that the word (used in compounds like flehmen response) was an eponym.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with flehmen
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
flehmen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flehmen
“flehmen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flehmen. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “flehmen,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flehmen.
Source: flehmen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.