1
as in to hover
to rest or move along the surface of a liquid or in the air
a canoe floating down the river particles of dust floating in the air
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to wander
to move about from place to place aimlessly
lost touch with a childhood friend who spent much of his adult life floating from place to place
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in dock
a structure used by boats and ships for taking on or landing cargo and passengers
the crew put the cargo on the float before heading back down the river
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of float
Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026
The Marlins scored the game’s first run in the third on a check swing RBI single from Xavier Edwards, which had just enough air to float over the glove of first baseman Rafael Devers and score Agustin Ramírez.
—Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 25 Apr. 2026
Timothy Dale, The Spruce, 16 Apr. 2026
The audio has also been improved, thanks to 32-bit float recording that captures distortion-free audio from four microphones.
—New Atlas, 16 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for float
Verb
In June 2025, balloons that floated into power lines in Philadelphia triggered a fire that damaged homes and injured two children, according to NBC10.
—Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026
The Marlins scored the game’s first run in the third on a check swing RBI single from Xavier Edwards, which had just enough air to float over the glove of first baseman Rafael Devers and score Agustin Ramírez.
—Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 25 Apr. 2026
Noun
Manually lift the float switch to ensure the motor turns on.
—Timothy Dale, The Spruce, 16 Apr. 2026
The audio has also been improved, thanks to 32-bit float recording that captures distortion-free audio from four microphones.
—New Atlas, 16 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for float
Recent Examples of Synonyms for float
Verb
-
So every draft really did hover around that range of 90 and 100 pages.—
Brian Davids,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Apr. 2026
-
In the 1960s, when Mellencamp was coming of age, Jackson County, which includes his hometown Seymour, hovered around thirty-one thousand residents, with about 1 percent of that population composed of Black families.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The back parking lot, once a nasty no man’s land where drunken customers wandered off to urinate, has recently been transformed into a performance space that has hosted small gigs including Duane Betts.—
Jimmy Jellinek,
SPIN,
27 Apr. 2026
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But, as Chen and Shrivastava wandered a Texas restaurant conference, a Dallas heating and air company called Rescue Air found them.—
Allie Garfinkle,
Fortune,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Canary Wharf, formerly grim docks and working-class housing blocks in eastern London, has been transformed into a mammoth global commercial center.—
Arthur I. Cyr,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Thousands gathered on shipping docks and downtown streets across Chicago, Detroit and Washington in 1860 for a chance to catch a glimpse of Albert Edward, the prince of Wales.—
Karissa Waddick,
USA Today,
28 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Over the course of a week, Noordam would sail from Seattle to Ketchikan, Alaska, before heading south through the scenic coast of British Columbia and the magnificent Great Bear Rainforest.—
Aaron Saunders,
Travel + Leisure,
29 Apr. 2026
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The barge on April 29 continued to sail toward the North Sea, the Associated Press reported.—
Natalie Neysa Alund,
USA Today,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Now, on her seventh studio album, Middle of Nowhere, Musgraves is letting the wind take her all the way back home, to a place where there’s no cell service, bulls roam freely, and gorgeous pedal steel guitars are plentiful.—
Maya Georgi,
Rolling Stone,
30 Apr. 2026
-
Escaped inmates roamed the streets of New Orleans under the watch of surveillance cameras.—
Patrick Smith,
NBC news,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Mark Dennis, a member of Auckland Council's Rodney Local Board, told the newspaper the man was fishing with his family on the wharf and was a good swimmer.—
Adam England,
PEOPLE,
23 Apr. 2026
-
Morris felt a sense of belonging in the city that did not belong, and on the wharf that morning laid the foundations of a whole career exploring nostalgia and its yearnings.—
Sara Wheeler,
Big Think,
17 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The stream rushed by, as clear and inviting as the nearby lake that their father forbade them from swimming in.—
Lizzie Johnson,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2026
-
Less than a year later, long-time boys swim coach Ed Walsh died of brain cancer.—
Krystle Rich,
CBS News,
25 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The Ferrari Purosangue Handling Speciale follows improvements already made among the competition, such as Aston Martin’s 717 hp DBX S and Bentley’s latest Bentayga Speed—the latter now capable of drifting.—
Viju Mathew,
Robb Report,
29 Apr. 2026
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In this haunting and visually inventive documentary, a spectral voice drifts through time and memory to trace the Maidan revolution and the roots of resistance in Ukraine.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
29 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Float.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/float. Accessed 1 May. 2026.
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