Word.ws English Dictionary

floating signifiers

floating signifiers is the plural of floating signifier.

Meaning of floating signifier

Noun

floating signifier (plural floating signifiers)

  1. A signifier—that is, a linguistic sign, a label or slogan—with a vague and variable meaning.
    • However, the elite as a target for populist resentments remains quite fuzzy and rather serves as a floating signifier oscillating between the ‘political establishment’, the ‘economic elite’, the ‘cultural elite’ and the ‘media elite’: in short, one homogenous corrupt group that works against the...2020, Ina Kudde, Miranda Loli, “Corruption and populism: the linkage”, in Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Paul M. Heywood, editors, A Research Agenda for Studies of Corruption, →ISBN, page 122

Questions about floating signifiers

What is floating signifiers the plural of?
Floating signifiers is the plural of floating signifier.

Words near floating signifiers in the dictionary

  1. floating rib
  2. floating ribs
  3. floating screed
  4. floating screeds
  5. floating signifier
  6. floating signifiers
  7. floating someone's boat
  8. floating tone
  9. floating tones
  10. floating vote
  11. floating voter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: floating signifiers (page history and authors); floating signifier (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:

Cite this entry: “floating signifiers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/floating_signifiers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.