flatten
v.to make something flat or level. In music, it means to lower a note by a half step. In programming, it means to turn a complex data structure into a simple list.
v.to make flat or level; to reduce the height or thickness of something. In a musical context, it refers to the lowering of a pitch by a semitone. In a programming context, it describes the process of converting a nested data structure into a single-level structure.
“The musician flattened the note to create a different sound.”
“The developer used a flatten function to convert the nested JSON object into a single list of values.”
“By flattening the hierarchical structure of the database, the system significantly improved query performance, though it introduced some complexity in maintaining data integrity.”
From flat + -en.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.