Word.ws English Dictionary

float like a butterfly

float like a butterfly verb: to move effortlessly and in an agile fashion.

Verb

float like a butterfly (third-person singular simple present floats like a butterfly, present participle floating like a butterfly, simple past and past participle floated like a butterfly)

  1. (colloquial, simile) To move effortlessly and in an agile fashion.

Forms of float like a butterfly

third-person singular presentfloats like a butterfly
present participlefloating like a butterfly
past participlefloated like a butterfly
pastfloated like a butterfly

Origin of float like a butterfly

Coined by US boxer Muhammad Ali.

Questions about float like a butterfly

What does float like a butterfly mean?
Float like a butterfly means to move effortlessly and in an agile fashion.
What part of speech is float like a butterfly?
Float like a butterfly is a verb.
What is the past tense of float like a butterfly?
The past tense of float like a butterfly is floated like a butterfly.

Words near float like a butterfly in the dictionary

  1. float at
  2. float board
  3. float boards
  4. float glass
  5. float glasses
  6. float like a butterfly
  7. float on air
  8. float someone's boat
  9. float switch
  10. float tank
  11. float tube

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: float like a butterfly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-float like a butterfly.ogg.

Cite this entry: “float like a butterfly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/float_like_a_butterfly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.