free-floating
adjective
free-float·ing
ˈfrē-ˈflō-tiŋ 
1
a
: floating freely
free-floating vegetation
b
: lacking specific attachment, direction, or purpose
free-floating ideas
2
: felt as an emotion without apparent cause
free-floating anxiety
Examples of free-floating in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But she is most heavily influenced, the film suggests, by the sheer ubiquity of school shootings and gun culture, which has contaminated America at large with a free-floating psychic residue of mass violence.
—
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2026
Throughout pregnancy, researchers claim that as much as 10 percent of the free-floating DNA in a mother’s bloodstream comes from the fetus.
—Literary Hub, 2 Apr. 2026
But in opera, a score isn’t just free-floating abstraction.
—Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Feb. 2026
But if his gestures were free-floating, his linguistic prowess remained dense and dexterous.
—Sarah Moroz, Pitchfork, 12 Nov. 2025
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Justin Chang, New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2026
Throughout pregnancy, researchers claim that as much as 10 percent of the free-floating DNA in a mother’s bloodstream comes from the fetus.
—Literary Hub, 2 Apr. 2026
But in opera, a score isn’t just free-floating abstraction.
—Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Feb. 2026
But if his gestures were free-floating, his linguistic prowess remained dense and dexterous.
—Sarah Moroz, Pitchfork, 12 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for free-floating
Cite this Entry
“Free-floating.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free-floating. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
free-floating
adjective
free-float·ing
ˈfrē-ˈflōt-iŋ
: felt as an emotion without apparent cause
free-floating anxiety
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