afloat

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /əˈfloʊt/ UK /əˈfləʊt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
floating on water; or financially solvent

A loan kept the business afloat through the lean months.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · floating on water; or... floating buoyant adrift solventawash

Opposites

sunk aground submerged bankrupt insolvent

Word family

Related forms float flotation fleet

Etymology

From Middle English aflote, from Old English on flote ('in a floating state'), from a- ('on') + flot ('body of water, floating'), related to fleotan ('to float').

flot Old English *flutōną Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# afloat

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /əˈfloʊt/
**IPA (UK):** /əˈfləʊt/

## Meanings
1. floating on water; or financially solvent

## Examples
- A loan kept the business afloat through the lean months.

## Synonyms
- floating
- buoyant
- adrift
- solvent
- awash

## Antonyms
- sunk
- aground
- submerged
- bankrupt
- insolvent

## Related Forms
- float
- flotation
- fleet

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: flot
- Root: *flutōną

## Etymology
From Middle English aflote, from Old English on flote ('in a floating state'), from a- ('on') + flot ('body of water, floating'), related to fleotan ('to float').

## AI Etymology
afloat comes from Middle English aflote, from Old English on flote ('in a floating state'), from a- ('on') + flot ('body of water, floating'), related to fleotan ('to float'). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the adjective sense is "floating on water; or financially solvent", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as float, flotation, fleet, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English flot, Proto-Germanic *flutōną, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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