There are several meanings of float:

• pontoon, an air-filled vessel such as a boat or ship floats on water;
• buoyancy
• float (horse-drawn) is a small, low-loading vehicle, used for deliveries. Changing practises produced the electric milk float.
• float (parade), a decorated vehicle or platform, animal- or man-drawn or motorzied, used in a festive parade
• float (project management)
• float (money supply and banking)
• Floating, gliding and sliding, a group of footwork-oriented dance techniques closely related to popping.
• float (breakdancing move)
• floating currency
• valve float in an internal combustion engine
• floating exchange rate
• floating point, a datatype in computer science
• free float of company stock
• insurance (investable policyholder funds)
• floating (psychological phenomenon)
• root beer float: ice cream and root beer mixed together
• floating (music), the guitar technique of sustaining a chord rather than scratching
• In electronics, an element floats if it is electrically disconnected from a power source. For example, a floating gate transistor has a gate element insulated from its electrodes.

• In computer typesetting environments such as HTML, wikitext or desktop publishing, "floating" describes the alignment of an element (such as an image or table) to the left or right while text wraps around it.