Vexillological Glossary

A reference of 80 terms used in flag design, manufacture, protocol and study.

A

All-over charge

An **all-over charge** is a single device that occupies the whole or substantially the whole of a flag's field, rather than being confined to a portion of it. Such charges…

Argent

**Argent** is the heraldic tincture silver, depicted in practice as white. With Or it makes up the two heraldic metals. In monochrome engravings argent is shown by leaving the surface…

Azure

**Azure** is the heraldic tincture blue. The word derives, via Old French, from the Persian *lazhuward*, the lapis lazuli stone from which the pigment ultramarine was made. In monochrome engravings…

B

Banner

A **banner** is a flag, usually rectangular and longer along the hoist than the fly, displaying the arms or device of a person, family or institution. Heraldic banners reproduce the…

Bicolour

A **bicolour** is a flag composed of two bands or fields of contrasting tinctures, with no further charge. Bicolours may be horizontal, vertical or divided diagonally. The form is older…

Blazoning

**Blazoning** is the formal description of an heraldic design in the precise technical language of heraldry. A blazon names the tinctures, ordinaries and charges of a shield or flag in…

Burgee

A **burgee** is a small, distinguishing flag flown by a yacht to identify the club to which it belongs, or by the commodore of a club to mark his command.…

C

Canton

A **canton** is a rectangular area placed in the upper hoist corner of a flag, occupying roughly a quarter of the field. It is the most honourable position in a…

Canton-and-field

**Canton-and-field** describes a design in which a distinguishing canton in the upper hoist sits upon a field that is otherwise plain or simply striped. The form is the basis of…

Charge

A **charge** is any emblem, figure or device placed upon the field of a flag. Charges may be geometric (crosses, saltires, bars), heraldic (lions, eagles, crowns), symbolic (stars, crescents) or…

Charged

**Charged** is the adjectival form indicating that a field or other portion of a flag bears a charge. A flag may be described as 'gules, charged with a crescent argent'…

CMYK

**CMYK** — cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) — is the four-colour process used in print reproduction and one of the standard ways of specifying flag colours for printed materials.…

Color (heraldic)

A **colour** in heraldic tincture is any tincture that is not a metal or a fur: Gules (red), Azure (blue), Sable (black), Vert (green) and Purpure (purple), together with the…

Construction sheet

A **construction sheet** is the technical drawing that defines the geometry of a flag: the ratio of the field, the widths and positions of stripes, the sizes and offsets of…

Courtesy flag

A **courtesy flag** is a small national flag flown by a visiting foreign vessel from the starboard yardarm or foremast to indicate respect for the host country. The courtesy flag…

Crescent

A **crescent** is a charge in the form of a stylised waxing or waning moon, with its horns turned to one side. The crescent has been associated with Islam since…

Cross

A **cross** in vexillology is a charge consisting of two intersecting bars, usually one horizontal and one vertical. The cross is among the oldest and most widely used flag devices.…

D

Defacement

**Defacement** is the addition of a charge, badge or other distinguishing device to an existing flag in order to create a new or subordinate design. The practice is most common…

Dexter

**Dexter** is a heraldic term, retained in vexillology, denoting the side of a flag or shield that is on the bearer's right and therefore on the viewer's left. The dexter…

E

Ensign

An **ensign** is the national flag flown by a vessel at sea, or by a military formation, to identify its nationality or allegiance. Many states maintain separate civil, state and…

Ensign at sea

An **ensign at sea** is the national or service flag flown by a vessel to declare its nationality and, in the case of warships, its service. When at sea, the…

F

**FIAV**, the *Federation internationale des associations vexillologiques*, is the international body that federates national and regional vexillological associations. Founded in 1969 at the third International Congress of Vexillology in Boston,…

Field

The **field** is the background surface of a flag, upon which charges are laid. A field may be of a single tincture (a plain field), divided into stripes or quarters,…

Fimbriated

**Fimbriated** is the adjectival form describing a charge or partition that has been given a narrow border of contrasting tincture. A cross fimbriated argent on a field gules is a…

Fimbriation

**Fimbriation** is a narrow border of contrasting colour placed around a charge or along the edge of a stripe, used principally to separate two tinctures that would otherwise sit directly…

Finial

A **finial** is the ornamental cap or terminal fitted to the top of a flagstaff. Finials may take the form of a ball, spearhead, eagle, fleur-de-lys or other emblem, and…

Flag day

A **flag day** is a date set by law or custom on which the national flag is flown in honour of a national event, person or institution. Flag days are…

Fly

The **fly** is the half of a flag farthest from the staff, opposite the hoist, and the term also refers to the free vertical edge that flaps in the wind.…

Fly-end

The **fly-end** is the free vertical edge of a flag, opposite the hoist. It is the edge most exposed to wind, and on flags in regular use it is often…

Full-staff

**Full-staff** (or full-mast at sea) is the normal position of a flag, with the hoist edge two-blocked at the truck of the staff. A flag flown at full-staff signals ordinary…

G

Geometric construction

**Geometric construction** is the system of proportional rules by which the elements of a flag — stripes, crosses, triangles, charges — are sized and positioned, expressed as fractions of the…

Gonfalon

A **gonfalon** is a flag suspended from a horizontal crossbar carried on a vertical staff, rather than bent on by its hoist edge. The lower edge is often cut into…

Gules

**Gules** is the heraldic tincture red. The name probably derives from Old French *gueules*, the red-dyed throats of fur used in medieval clothing. In monochrome engravings gules is conventionally indicated…

H

Half-mast

**Half-mast** is the maritime term for a flag lowered from the truck as a mark of mourning or respect; ashore the equivalent is half-staff in American usage, half-mast or half-staff…

Half-staff

**Half-staff** is the position of a flag flown lowered from the truck of the staff, conventionally to a point one flag-depth below the top, as a sign of mourning, distress…

Halyard

A **halyard** is the rope or line used to hoist and lower a flag along a staff or mast. The halyard runs through a block at the top of the…

Hex

**Hex** colour codes are a compact six-digit hexadecimal notation of RGB values, in the form #RRGGBB. Each pair of characters expresses one channel in the range 00-FF. Hex is the…

Hoist

In vexillology, the **hoist** is the half of a flag nearest the staff or pole, and also the vertical edge of the flag attached to the halyard. The hoist is…

Hoist-end

The **hoist-end** is the vertical edge of a flag attached to the staff, halyard or sleeve. It is the edge by which the flag is bent on to its means…

Hoisting

**Hoisting** is the act of raising a flag from the foot of the staff to its display position. Protocol requires that a flag be hoisted briskly, in contrast to the…

Horizontal tricolour

A **horizontal tricolour** is a flag divided into three bands of equal width running parallel to the fly. The horizontal tricolour was popularised in the nineteenth century as a republican…

I

ISO 3166

**ISO 3166** is the international standard that assigns two-letter, three-letter and numeric codes to the countries, territories and subdivisions of the world. The two-letter alpha-2 codes (such as FR for…

J

Jack

A **jack** is a small flag flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a warship when at anchor or alongside, to indicate the vessel's nationality independently of the ensign…

Jack at bow

**Jack at bow** describes the practice of flying a jack from a small staff at the bow of a warship when at anchor or alongside, in addition to the ensign…

L

Lowering

**Lowering** a flag is the act of taking it down from the staff or mast. In formal protocol, lowering is performed slowly and with ceremony, in contrast to the brisk…

M

Metal (heraldic)

A **metal** in heraldic tincture is one of the two pale tinctures, Or (gold/yellow) and Argent (silver/white). The rule of tincture forbids placing a metal upon a metal or a…

Monochrome

A **monochrome** flag is one displayed in a single tincture, without contrasting bands or charges. Plain monochrome flags are uncommon among modern national designs but have historical and ideological significance:…

N

Nordic colors

The **Nordic colours** are the specific national palettes carried by the Nordic cross flags of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Each is built on the same…

Nordic cross

The **Nordic cross** is a design in which a cross of one colour is set on a field of another, with the vertical arm displaced toward the hoist so that…

O

Or

**Or** is the heraldic tincture gold, depicted in practice as yellow. Together with Argent it forms the two metals. In monochrome engravings or is indicated by a pattern of fine…

P

Pan-African colors

The **pan-African colours** are red, gold and green, derived from the flag of Ethiopia, the only African state to maintain its independence through the era of European colonialism. Adopted in…

Pan-Arab colors

The **pan-Arab colours** are black, white, green and red, drawn from the verses of the thirteenth-century poet Safi al-Din al-Hilli that name them as the colours of Arab history: the…

Pan-Iranian colors

The **pan-Iranian colours** are green, white and red, the three bands of the modern flag of Iran and the historical tricolour of Persia introduced in the nineteenth century. The colours…

Pan-Slavic colors

The **pan-Slavic colours** are white, blue and red, adopted by the first Pan-Slavic Congress at Prague in 1848 on the model of the Russian tricolour of Peter the Great. They…

Pantone

**Pantone** is a proprietary colour-matching system widely used to specify the exact tinctures of national flags for manufacture. A flag specification given in Pantone references a particular ink formula that…

Pennant

A **pennant** is a long, narrow, tapering flag, usually triangular or with a swallow-tailed fly. Pennants are used at sea as signals, as commissioning pennants on warships, and ashore for…

Pennon

A **pennon** is a small, tapering or triangular flag, in medieval heraldry the personal flag of a knight bachelor, fixed to the head of a lance. Pennons bore the knight's…

Proportions

**Proportions** in vexillology refer to the relative dimensions of a flag's elements, including the overall ratio of hoist to fly and the relative widths and positions of stripes, cantons and…

Q

Q flag

The **Q flag**, or quarantine flag, is the signal flag of the letter Q in the International Code of Signals: a plain yellow rectangle. Flown alone by a vessel entering…

Quartered

A **quartered** flag or shield is divided into four equal parts by a vertical and a horizontal line meeting at the centre, each quarter bearing its own charge or tincture.…

R

Ratio

The **ratio** of a flag is the proportion of its hoist (height) to its fly (length), expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, such as 2:3 or 1:2. Ratio…

Ratio codification

**Ratio codification** is the formal expression of a flag's hoist-to-fly proportions in law or regulation. National practice varies: some states fix only the ratio and leave details to manufacturers, while…

RGB

**RGB** — red, green and blue — is the additive colour model used to specify colours on emitting displays such as monitors, televisions and projectors. RGB values, each in the…

S

Sable

**Sable** is the heraldic tincture black, named from the dark fur of the sable marten used in medieval clothing. In monochrome engravings sable is shown by crossed vertical and horizontal…

Saltire

A **saltire** is a diagonal cross, formed by two bars running from corner to corner. In heraldry the saltire is an ordinary; in flags it is the dominant device on…

Sharifian colors

The **Sharifian colours** are the four tinctures — black, white, green and red — chosen by the Hashemite Sharif Hussein of Mecca for the Flag of the Arab Revolt of…

Signal flag

A **signal flag** is one of a set of flags forming an established code for communication between vessels or between ship and shore. The International Code of Signals comprises twenty-six…

Sinister

**Sinister** is the heraldic term for the side of a flag or shield on the bearer's left, which appears on the viewer's right. It corresponds to the fly side of…

Standard

A **standard** is a personal or institutional flag, traditionally long and tapering, bearing the badges and mottoes of its owner. In medieval European practice the standard was distinct from the…

Star

A **star** is one of the most common charges in modern flag design. Stars vary in the number of their points — five, six, seven, eight and more — and…

Sunrise-to-sunset rule

The **sunrise-to-sunset rule** is the convention, observed in most jurisdictions, that flags are displayed from sunrise to sunset only, and at no other times unless they are illuminated through the…

Swallow-tail

A **swallow-tail** is a flag whose fly-end is cut into two tapering points separated by a triangular indentation, suggestive of a swallow's tail. The shape is associated with cavalry guidons,…

T

Tincture

In heraldry, a **tincture** is any of the recognised colours, metals or furs used in the composition of arms. Tinctures are divided into two principal classes, metals and colours, with…

Tricolour

A **tricolour** is a flag composed of three bands of equal width and contrasting tinctures. The form may be horizontal or vertical and is the dominant pattern of modern national…

U

Undefaced

**Undefaced** describes a flag that bears no additional charge, badge or device beyond its basic field or partition. The plain Red, White and Blue ensigns of the United Kingdom, flown…