a HackerNoon project
Original · left

Float (buoyancy)

Buoyantly resting or drifting along the surface of a body of water without sinking.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Floating-point

A fundamental computational numerical data type used to represent real numbers containing decimal points.

First in use: the 1940s

Float / Float (buoyancy) / Floating-point

Loading data…
Canonical todayMeasuring…
Status—
Duplicate share · 12 mo—
Last crossover—
Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Bobbing on water vs. IEEE 754.

Which meaning of Float is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Float (buoyancy) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Floating-point arrived in the 1940s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Float (buoyancy)Floating-point
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Float (buoyancy)

Loading the Wikipedia definition…

12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—
Duplicate · the 1940s

Floating-point

Loading the Wikipedia definition…

12-mo pageviews—
Year over year—
Peak month—

More duplicated terms

Programming & software