Flotant

Flotant is a term encountered in French-language texts as a form related to the verb flotter, which means to float. In standard French, the regular present participle and adjective is flottant (masculine), with flottante for the feminine. Flotant can appear as a misspelling or nonstandard variant in some sources, but flottant is the form commonly used to convey the idea of something that floats or is buoyant.

As an adjective, flotant (or flottant in the correct spelling) describes objects or substances that remain on the surface of a liquid or that have enough buoyancy to resist sinking. Examples would include a floating leaf, a buoy, or any material with a density lower than the surrounding fluid. In French, you would typically say un objet flottant or une surface flottante to express that idea, with the feminine form flottante corresponding to feminine nouns.

In English-language writing, flotant is not a standard term; translators generally render it as floating or buoyant. The concept is tied to buoyancy and Archimedes’ principle, explaining why certain objects rise or stay near the surface of a liquid.

Related concepts include flotabilité (buoyancy), flottation (the broader notion of floating, sometimes used in mineral processing discussions in French) and the general distinction between objects that float versus those that sink. Flotant, when encountered, is best understood as a variant or misspelling of flottant, the correct masculine form in French.