floater

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈfloʊtɚ/ UK /ˈfləʊtə/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a thing or person that floats; a spot drifting in one's field of vision

He noticed a floater drifting across his eye in the bright light.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a thing or person that... drifter wanderer speck spot buoy

Word family

Related forms float floating afloat

Etymology

From float (Old English flotian 'to float', akin to fleotan 'to glide') + the agentive suffix -er.

flotian Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

# floater

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈfloʊtɚ
**IPA (UK):** ˈfləʊtə

## Meanings
1. a thing or person that floats; a spot drifting in one's field of vision

## Examples
- He noticed a floater drifting across his eye in the bright light.

## Synonyms
- drifter
- wanderer
- speck
- spot
- buoy

## Related Forms
- float
- floating
- afloat

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: flotian

## Etymology
From float (Old English flotian 'to float', akin to fleotan 'to glide') + the agentive suffix -er.

## AI Etymology
Floater is from float (Old English flotian 'to float', akin to fleotan 'to glide') + the agentive suffix -er. Important recorded forms include flotian (Old English). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers a thing or person that floats; a spot drifting in one's field of vision. The wider family includes related words such as float, floating, and afloat.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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floater

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