floor
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: flô
ipa: /flɔː/
enpr: flôr
ipa: /flɔɹ/
ipa: [flo̞ɹ]
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
enpr: flōr
ipa: /flo(ː)ɹ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
note: non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /floə/
note: non-rhotic, dough–door merger, African-American Vernacular
ipa: /floʊ/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
homophone: flaw (non-rhotic)
homophone: flow
homophone: floe (dough–door merger)
Forms: form: floors
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English flor, flore, from Old English flōr (“floor, pavement, ground, bottom”), from Proto-West Germanic *flōr, from Proto-Germanic *flōraz (“flat surface, floor, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”).
Cognate with Scots flair, fluir (“floor”), Saterland Frisian Floor (“floor”), West Frisian flier (“floor”), Dutch vloer (“floor”), German Flur (“field, floor, entrance hall”), German Low German Floor (“entry hall”), Luxembourgish Flouer (“countryside, farmland”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish flor (“floor of a cow stall”), Irish urlár (“floor”), Scottish Gaelic làr (“floor, ground, earth”), Welsh llawr (“floor, ground”), Latin plānus (“level, flat”).
Senses: examples: text: The room has a wooden floor.
text: A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
glosses: The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room.
examples: text: The leaves covering the forest floor provide many hiding-places for small animals.
text: Many sunken ships rest on the ocean floor.
text: The floor of a cave served the refugees as a home.
text: The pit floor showed where a ring of post holes had been.
topics: biology
geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space (e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); the ground (surface of the Earth).
raw_tags: with a modifier
examples: text: After stepping off the bus, my wallet fell on the floor.
glosses: The ground.
topics: architecture
business
construction
manufacturing
glosses: A structure formed of beams, girders, etc, with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into storeys/stories.
examples: text: Wooden planks of the old bridge's floor were nearly rotten.
glosses: The supporting surface or platform of a structure such as a bridge.
examples: text: For years we lived on the third floor.
text: When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
topics: architecture
glosses: A storey/story of a building.
glosses: In a parliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery.
examples: text: Will the senator from Arizona yield the floor?
text: The mayor often gives a lobbyist the floor.
glosses: The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.
topics: business
mining
glosses: A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit.
topics: business
mining
glosses: The bottom of a pit, pothole or mine.
examples: text: The floor of 4.5 is 4.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The largest integer less than or equal to a given number.
topics: gymnastics
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An event performed on a floor-like carpeted surface; floor exercise
topics: gymnastics
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A floor-like carpeted surface for performing gymnastic movements.
topics: business
finance
glosses: A lower limit or minimum on a price or rate, a price floor. Opposite of a cap or ceiling.
examples: text: She's a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she's dancing like she never danced before
ref: 1983, "Maniac", Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky
text: Open the door, get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur
ref: 1987, "Walk the Dinosaur", Was (Not Was)
text: Meet me on the floor tonight
Show me how to move like the water
ref: 2025 April 4, Ed Sheeran, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Johnny McDaid, Savan Kotecha, “Azizam”, in Play, performed by Ed Sheeran:
glosses: A dance floor.
glosses: The trading floor of a stock exchange, pit; the area in which business is conducted at a convention or exhibition.
examples: text: At each table stood a young, slim, poker-faced croupier serving the punters who anxiously watched the turning of the cards. The next two floors were similar though not quite as spectacular and the stakes were lower.
ref: 2004, Tim Hatton, Tock Tock Birds: A Spider in the Web of International Terrorism, page 284:
glosses: The area of a casino where gambling occurs.
examples: text: The conference started as an impromptu session in the coffee shop this morning when waitresses walked off the floor rather than serve four Negro men and women delegates.
ref: 1947 March 18, U.S. Government Printing Office, Proceedings and Debates of the Congress, Eightieth Congress, First Session, page 2206:
glosses: The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers.
Synonyms: sense: right to speak
word: possession
word: floor
word: flooring
word: ground
word: flight
Hyponyms: word: earth floor
word: hearth
word: nightingale floor
word: parquet
word: ground floor
word: first floor
Meronyms: word: deafening
word: floorboard
word: floorplate
word: joist
word: planching
word: plank
word: pugging
word: carpet
word: corticine
word: drugget
word: floor tile
word: floorcloth
word: floorcovering
word: linoleum
word: tatami
word: tile
word: underlay
word: vinyl composition tile
word: wood carpet
word: fire block
word: floor box
word: floor safe
word: trapdoor
word: wellhole
Derived terms: 4-on-the-floor
back to the floor
barnfloor
cornfloor
cross the floor
dance floor
deck floor
drill floor
earth-floor
earth floor
first floor
floorage
floorball
floorboard
floor box
floor broker
floorcare
floorcest
floor cloth
floorcloth
floorcovering
floor cramp
floordrobe
floor effect
floorer
floor exercise
floor-filler
floorful
floor function
floor general
floorgrip
floorhand
floorhead
floor heating
floor hockey
floor it
floor lamp
floor-length
floorless
floorlet
floor light
floorlike
floorman
floor manager
floormat
floor mat
floormate
floor model
floor one could eat off
floorpan
floorperson
floor piano
floor plan
floor plan lending
floorplanning
floorplate
floor puzzle
floorset
floor show
floorshow
floorspace
floor space
floor temperature challenge
floor-through
floor tile
floortime
floor-to-ceiling
floor trader
floor-walker
floorwalking
floorward
floorwards
floorway
floorwise
floorwoman
floorwork
Four Floors of Whores
four on the floor
four-on-the-floor
four-to-the-floor
give the floor
ground floor
ground-floor
have the floor
hit the floor
hold the floor
house floor
killing floor
living floor
low-floor
malt floor
Marley floor
mezzanine floor
midfloor
mop the floor with someone
multifloor
nightingale floor
nonfloor
ocean floor
office floor plate
on the cutting room floor
on the floor
open floor plan
pelvic floor
pick oneself up off the floor
price floor
pull up a floor
refloor
rooted to the floor
sales floor
seafloor
sea-floor spreading
second floor
shiny-floor
shop floor
showfloor
skill floor
subfloor
take the floor
tear up the dance floor
the floor is lava
thirteenth floor
thrashing-floor
thrashing floor
threshing floor
threshing-floor
through the floor
top floor
trading floor
underfloor
upfloor
valley floor
walk the floor
wipe the floor
wipe the floor with someone
Related terms: word: flooring
word: mezzanine
word: floorage
word: floorspace
word: straight-joint