Vexillology Vocabulary

A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol (e.g., as found on the flag of Portugal).

B

A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long, narrow flag flown from the masthead of a ship.

B

A flag with two vertical or horizontal stripes that may be charged or not, e.g., the flag of Algeria.

B

A band of contrasting color around the perimeter of a flag, such as is found on the flags of the Republic of Maldives and the U.S. state of Wyoming.

B

Any quarter of a flag, but most commonly used to mean the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag.

C

A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, e.g., the Sun of May on the flag of Argentina.

C

A version of a national flag that is flown on non-government, non-military installations or craft.

C

A band of color running diagonally from the upper hoist to the lower fly, e.g., the black band in the flag of Trinidad and Tobago.

D

The flag of any ship or military unit, generally flown at the stern on ships.

E

A charge on a flag that takes the form of a band running horizontally across its center, e.g., the white band in the flag of Austria.

F

The background of a flag; the color behind the charges.

F

The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole. This term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag.

F

The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole. This term also sometimes refers to the vertical dimension of a flag.

H

A flag flown from a short jackstaff at the bow of a ship.

J

A cross symbol in a rectangular field, with the centre of the cross shifted towards the hoist, as found in the flags of, e.g., Norway and Denmark.

N

A Y-shaped charge often placed horizontally on flags, with two arms extending from the hoist edge (or from near the hoist edge), and the third arm extending across the center to the fly edge. Example: the green horizontal Y-shape in the flag of South Africa.

P

A flag that is wider at the hoist than at the fly.

P

A wedge-shaped charge, usually emerging from the hoist edge of a flag, e.g., the blue wedge in the flag of the Czech Republic.

P

A style in which the field is divided into four sections, e.g. the flag of Panama. The division may be horizontal and vertical or diagonal.

Q

Flags used to communicate with ships, whereby a series of flags can spell out a message (with each flag representing a letter), an individual flag can have a standard meaning, or one or more flags can represent a code word.

S

A band of color running diagonally from the lower hoist to the upper fly, e.g., the black band in the flag of Tanzania.

S

A heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross.

S

A style that consists of three vertical or horizontal stripes, which may be charged with an emblem on the middle stripe, and in which the two non-contiguous stripes may be of the same color, e.g., the flags of Armenia and Chad.

T

A triband flag with three vertical or horizontal stripes of three unique colors, e.g., the flag of France.

T