Afloat

How to spell afloat

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce afloat

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does afloat mean?

1. adjectiveResting or buoyed on the surface of water rather than sinking.
2. adjectiveAble to meet costs and avoid debt; financially surviving.

Afloat in a sentence

• The lifeboat stayed afloat despite the heavy waves.

• A small grant kept the charity afloat through the winter.

• They bailed out the dinghy to keep it afloat.

• Careful budgeting kept the family business afloat during the downturn.

Where does afloat come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to Old English, where the phrase 'on flot' literally meant 'on the sea' or 'in a state of floating', flot being a noun related to the verb flotian, 'to float'. Over the medieval period the preposition and noun fused into the single adverb 'aflote', and the spelling eventually settled as 'afloat'. The same Germanic root that gave 'float' also lies behind 'fleet' (a group of ships) and 'flotsam' (wreckage floating on water), all tied to the idea of riding on the surface of water. By extension, English speakers began using 'afloat' figuratively from the 1600s to mean managing to stay solvent or keeping a venture going, much as a boat keeps its head above water. The simple a- at the front is the same unstressed prefix found in 'asleep', 'ashore', and 'awake', which is why it carries no double letters or hidden traps.

How the word is built

• a- (on, in a state of)
• float (root from Old English flotian: to float)