• 20 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Parts of a Flag

Tap the field, the canton, the hoist and the fly on one plain flag.

Parts of a Flag

Name Date

Tap any part to read, rename or leave it out

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Field (ground)
  2. Canton (upper hoist)
  3. Hoist
  4. Fly
  5. Charge (emblem)
  6. Border
  7. Fringe
  8. Length
  9. Width
  10. Grommets
  11. Heading (header)
  12. Fly end
  13. Upper fly
  14. Lower hoist
  15. Lower fly
  16. Sleeve
  17. Toggle
  18. Obverse (front)
  19. Reverse (back)
  20. Fimbriation

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-28: an invented flag that belongs to no country, state, city or organization. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

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All 20 parts on the diagram

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Areas of the flag 7

  1. Field (ground) The background color of a flag, behind every emblem.
  2. Canton (upper hoist) The upper corner next to the staff, the flag's place of honor.
  3. Hoist The half of a flag nearest the staff.
  4. Fly The half of a flag farthest from the staff.
  5. Upper fly The top quarter on the side away from the staff.
  6. Lower hoist The bottom quarter beside the staff, under the canton.
  7. Lower fly The bottom quarter on the side away from the staff.

Edges, sides and measurements 5

  1. Length Measured from the hoist edge out to the fly end.
  2. Width Measured from the top edge to the bottom edge.
  3. Fly end The free edge, farthest from the staff, hemmed again as it wears.
  4. Obverse (front) The front, seen with the hoist on the viewer's left.
  5. Reverse (back) The back, usually a mirror image of the front.

Fittings 4

  1. Grommets Reinforced holes in the heading that take the halyard clips.
  2. Heading (header) A strip of heavy cloth sewn along the hoist edge.
  3. Sleeve A tube of cloth at the hoist that the staff slides into.
  4. Toggle A wood or plastic crosspiece on the rope sewn into the heading.

Design and finish 4

  1. Charge (emblem) Any emblem or design placed on the field.
  2. Border A band of another color that surrounds the field.
  3. Fringe Decorative thread on the edges of a parade or indoor flag.
  4. Fimbriation A narrow edging that separates two colors.

How this list was compiled: Every name and every detail line was checked, for facts only and with nothing copied, against pages fetched on 2026-09-20: (1) Wikipedia, Glossary of vexillology (page title Flag terminology), section Flag elements, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_vexillology; (2) Flags of the World, Dictionary of Vexillology, https://www.fotw.info/flags/vxt-dvex.html (entries border, canton, charge, field, fly, fly edge, fringe, grommet, heading, hoist, hoistline, length, lower fly, lower hoist, obverse, reverse, sleeve, toggle, upper fly, upper hoist, width); (3) North American Vexillological Association, Good Flag, Bad Flag (Ted Kaye), https://nava.org/digital-library/design/GFBF_English.pdf; (4) Flag Institute, Flying Flags in the United Kingdom, https://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Flying-Flags-in-the-United-Kingdom.pdf; (5) Wikipedia, Flag, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag (the sentence on headings, grommets and the halyard; the section on obverse and reverse); (6) Wikipedia, Fimbriation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimbriation. Each part's src lists the numbers of the sources that carry it. The site plan named a NAVA glossary page; no such page was found on nava.org on 2026-09-20, so the NAVA source used is the booklet Good Flag, Bad Flag, which labels canton, hoist, field and fly on its own drawing. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-28: an invented flag (teal field, gold canton, red bird with white fimbriation) that belongs to no country, state, city or organization; nothing traced or copied. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a flag, numbered 1 to 20 on one invented flag. The quiz names a part and you tap it. Round one asks the areas of the flag: the field, the canton, the hoist and the fly among them.

Read the full guide

The four names every flag diagram uses

The field is the background color. The canton is the upper corner beside the staff. The hoist is the half of the cloth nearest the staff, and the fly is the half that streams away from it. Dashed lines split the cloth into four quarters: canton, upper fly, lower hoist and lower fly.

Fittings, measurements and the two sides

A flag is hoisted by grommets in its heading or by a rope and toggle, never both, so the toggle has its own close-up. The sleeve, the border and the fringe sit on a small parade flag. Length runs from the hoist out to the fly end, and width runs parallel to the staff.

  • The hoist is the side you hoist, the edge fastened to the rope. The fly is the side that flies free.
  • A flag drawn with no side named is seen from the front, the obverse, with the staff on your left.
  • Flag designers keep symbols away from the fly end, so a worn flag can be hemmed again and keep flying.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a flag called?

The four basic parts are the field, the canton, the hoist and the fly. This page adds 16: three more quarters, the fly end, length, width, heading, grommets, toggle, sleeve, charge, fimbriation, border, fringe, obverse and reverse.

What is the difference between the hoist and the fly?

The hoist is the half of a flag nearest the staff, and the fly is the half farthest from it. Each word also names the edge on its side. Flag makers use the same two words for a flag's width and length.

What is the canton of a flag?

The canton is the upper quarter beside the staff. It is the place of honor, the part still seen when a flag hangs limp. The word can also mean any quarter, which is why the other three have their own names.

Which side of a flag is the front?

The front is the obverse, the side you see when the staff is on your left. The back is the reverse, and on most flags it is a mirror image of the front.

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