Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Floss |
FlossNoun1. A soft loosely twisted thread used in embroidery. 2. A soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth. Verb1. Use dental floss to clean; of teeth. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "floss" was first used: 1759. (references) |
Etymology: Floss \Floss\, noun. [Italian floscio flabby, soft, from Latin fluxus flowing, loose, slack. See Flux, noun]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Biology & Biotechnology | Tangled silk on the outside of the cocoon, also known as floss. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | White cast iron for converting into steel. (references) |
Personal Care & Hotels | Loosely twisted, lustrous embroidery thread. . . . . of silk or mercerized cotton. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: FlossSynonym: dental floss (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Roughness | Wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down; byssus, moss, bur; fluff. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Floss |
| English words defined with "floss": Bombay ceiba ♦ Cappadine, Ceiba pentandra, ceiba tree ♦ Floss thread, Floxed silk ♦ God tree ♦ kapok ♦ silk-cotton tree, Sleave, Spun silk ♦ white silk-cotton tree. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "floss": DENTAL FLOSS PACKER ♦ frison. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "floss": Filoselle. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | It's floss. (8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter; writing credit: Stig Blyme; Lars Ellegaard) | |
Lyrics | Gets my swerve on, floss pure rocks (Get Me Home; performing artist: FOXY) Got my act together, she see me on floss (Take Your Time; performing artist: HOT) If I wanna floss I got my own (Love Don't Cost A Thing; performing artist: Jennifer Lopez) AND YO they LIKE dealin'wit cats that love to floss (Ghetto Girls; performing artist: Lil Bow Wow) As much as we’s floss, still hard to please boss (#1; performing artist: Nelly) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Mill on the Floss (1937) Candy Floss (1997) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Theater & Movies | |||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Eating candy floss at a small lodge carnival near Bellows Falls, Vermont. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Brushing teeth; tooth; dental; dentifrice; toothpaste; cavities; cavity; floss; oral hygiene; mouth; gums; gingivitis; periodontal; periodontist; dentist; molar; incisor; bicuspid. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Use waxed, non-shredding dental floss. (references) | |
Floss gently between teeth daily if you flossed regularly before your illness. (references) | ||
Using a sawing motion, gently bring the floss through the tight spaces between the teeth. (references) | ||
Business | Significant growth has occurred in U.S. exports of HS901849 (other dental science items), HS330620 (dental floss), and HS300640 (dental cement and other dental fillings), to Australia. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Floss" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 85.11% of the time. "Floss" is used about 47 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 85.11% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Noun (proper) | 8.51% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 4.26% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 2.13% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 47 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "floss" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Floss | Last name | 100 | 72,926 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "floss": candied floss ♦ candy floss ♦ dental floss ♦ Floss hole ♦ Floss silk ♦ Floss thread ♦ floss yarn ♦ linen floss ♦ silk floss. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "floss": floss-threaders. | |
Ending with "floss": candy-floss. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "floss"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fill mëndafshi për qëndisje, push i mëndafshtë (floss silk), pe për të pastruar dhëmbët (dental floss), pastroj dhëmbët me pe. (various references) | |
Arabic | نسيج الحرير, ليف (bast, fiber, fibre, fibrilla), لفة حرير, دودة الحرير. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сурова коприна, коса (hair, scythe, silk, tassel), копринен дреб, непресукана копринена нишка. (various references) | |
Chinese | 绣花丝绒. (various references) | |
Czech | šicí hedvábí (floss silk). (various references) | |
Danish | slaggehul (cinder hole, floss hole). (various references) | |
Dutch | asuitlaat (cinder hole, floss hole). (various references) | |
Finnish | haiven (down, fur, hair). (various references) | |
French | frison, fil floche, ver à soie, soierie, soie, bourre de soie. (various references) | |
German | zuckerwatte (candy floss), Zahnfloß (dental floss), Schlackenloch (cinder hole, floss hole). (various references) | |
Greek | νήμα μετάξησ, νήμα μεταξιού, μεταξωτή κλωστή, χνούδι (fluff, fuzz). (various references) | |
Hebrew | סיב (fiber, fibre, staple, string). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pehely (fluff, floccule, fuzz, plume), hernyóselyem, szőrcsomó (plume), salaknyílás (floss-hole), pihe (fluff, flue), kukoricahaj, füstgázcsatorna (floss-hole), üveges salak. (various references) | |
Indonesian | serat sutra. (various references) | |
Italian | lanugine (down, fluff, fuzz). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 真綿 (silk floss, silk wadding), 綿飴 (cotton candy, fairy floss), 綿飴 (cotton candy, fairy floss), 綿帽子 (bride's silk floss headdress), 絹綿 (silk floss), 引き綿 (floss silk). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きぬわた (silk floss), ひきわた (floss silk), まわた (silk floss, silk wadding), わたぼうし (bride's silk floss headdress), わたあめ (cotton candy, fairy floss). (various references) | |
Norwegian | dun. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ossflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | seda crua (raw silk), regato (bourn, brooklet, burn, kill, rill, rivulet, runlet, runnel, stream, streamlet), penugem (down, fluff). (various references) | |
Romanian | puf (bloom, down, flue, fluff, fuzz, lint, nap), mãtase brutã. (various references) | |
Russian | ручей (bourn, brook, creek, groove, nullah, rivulet, run, stream, watercourse), шелк-сырец (filoselle), зубочистка (toothpick). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sirova svila (floss silk), končić za zube. (various references) | |
Spanish | seda floja (floss silk). (various references) | |
Swedish | flocksilke (floss silk). (various references) | |
Thai | เส้นใยไหม, ไหมขัดฟัน. (various references) | |
Turkish | floş (floss silk, flush, silk floss), ipek kozası, incecik tüyler, hav (down, fuzz, nap, pile), ham ipek (floss silk, raw silk), diş ipi (dental floss), cam curufu, cüruf deliği (floss hole), ayva tüyü (down, fluff). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | вишивальний шовк, пух (fluff, fuzz, wool). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vải sồi quần áo sồi, tơ sồi sồi. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| French | 1500-Modern | floche. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "floss": flossed, flosses, flossie, flossier, flossies, flossiest, flossily, flossing, flossy. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "floss": candyfloss. (additional references) | |
Words containing "floss": candyflosses. (additional references) | |
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"Floss" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ffoss, Filhos, flass, flesc, Flessa, Fliss, flobs, floos, flos, flose, flous, flps, flus, flusa, Flusse, Follosco, Fols, folse, folses, fosso. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "floss" (pronounced flÄ"s) |
| 3 | -l Ä" s | Las, semigloss. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-l-o-s-s" | |
-1 letter: foss, loss, sols. | |
-2 letters: sol, sos. | |
-3 letters: lo, of, os, so. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-l-o-s-s" | |
+1 letter: flossy, fossil. | |
+2 letters: flossed, flosses, flossie, fogless, fossils, safrols. | |
+3 letters: floosies, florists, flossier, flossies, flossily, flossing, flotsams, foamless, foodless, footless, fordless, forkless, formless, foulness, hoofless, loftless, roofless, safroles, seafowls, selfdoms, solfeges, souffles, sulfones. | |
+4 letters: aloofness, blastoffs, falsettos, farnesols, felstones, fishbolts, fishbowls, fishpoles, fissional, fistulous, fleshpots, flossiest, flourless, fluoroses, fluorosis, focalises, focusless, folksiest, folksongs, foolscaps, footslogs, forceless, foresails, fossilise, fossilize, fossorial, frontless, holdfasts, housefuls, loftiness, nonfossil, scaffolds, scofflaws, scoopfuls, scoopsful, scrofulas, seafloors, selfhoods, shooflies, shoplifts, slipforms, snowfalls, softballs, softshell, spoonfuls, spoonsful, subfloors, subfossil, sulfonyls, sulfurous. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
