Word: floor Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Inherited from Middle English floor, floour, flor, flore, flour, flur, vlor, from Old English flōr (“floor, pavement; deck; gangplank”), from Proto-West Germanic *flōr, from Proto-Germanic *flōraz (“ground; floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”). Cognates Cognate with Scots flair, fluir (“floor”), Saterland Frisian Floor (“floor”), Dutch vloer (“floor”), German Flur (“corridor, hall, hallway, stairwell”), Limburgish Vlǫǫr (“floor”), Low German Floor (“hallway or entrance to a house”), Luxembourgish Flouer (“countryside, farmland”); also Breton and Cornish leur (“floor, ground, surface”), Irish lár (“floor, ground”), Scottish Gaelic làr (“earth, floor, ground”), Manx laare (“bottom, deck, floor; level, storey”), Welsh llawr (“floor, ground”), Latin plānus (“even, flat, level”), Greek απαλάμη (apalámi), παλάμη (palámi, “hand, palm”), Albanian pëllëmbë (“palm”), Latgalian pluons (“thin”), Latvian plāns (“thin”), Lithuanian plonas (“fine, slender, thin”), Belarusian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian по́ле (póle, “field”), Bulgarian поле́ (polé, “field”), Czech, Polish, and Slovak pole (“field”), Serbo-Croatian по̏ље, pȍlje (“field”), Slovene polje (“field”), Hittite 𒁄𒄭𒅖 (palḫis, “broad, wide”). Related to flat. Pronunciation: /flɔː/, /floɹ/, /floː/, /flo(ː)ɹ/, /floə/ 1. The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room. Labels: countable Example: The room has a wooden floor. Example: 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. 2. The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space (e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); the ground (surface of the Earth). Example: The leaves covering the forest floor provide many hiding-places for small animals. Example: Many sunken ships rest on the ocean floor. 3. The ground. Labels: UK, colloquial, dialectal Example: After stepping off the bus, my wallet fell on the floor. 4. A structure formed of beams, girders, etc, with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into storeys/stories. 5. The supporting surface or platform of a structure such as a bridge. Example: Wooden planks of the old bridge's floor were nearly rotten. 6. A storey/story of a building. Labels: countable Example: For years we lived on the third floor. Example: 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. 7. In a parliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery. 8. The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event. Labels: broadly Example: Will the senator from Arizona yield the floor? Example: The mayor often gives a lobbyist the floor. 9. That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal. 10. A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit. 11. The bottom of a pit, pothole or mine. 12. The largest integer less than or equal to a given number. Example: The floor of 4.5 is 4. 13. An event performed on a floor-like carpeted surface; floor exercise 14. A floor-like carpeted surface for performing gymnastic movements. 15. A lower limit or minimum on a price or rate, a price floor. Opposite of a cap or ceiling. 16. A dance floor. Example: She's a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she's dancing like she never danced before Example: Open the door, get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur 17. The trading floor of a stock exchange, pit; the area in which business is conducted at a convention or exhibition. 18. The area of a casino where gambling occurs. Example: 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. 19. The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers. Example: 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.