Floc

//flɒk// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A floccule; a soft or fluffy particle suspended in a liquid, or the fluffy mass of suspended particles so formed. countable, uncountable

    "It might seem that Mr. Holl, whose initial sketches are glorious watercolors, was an unlikely candidate for a job that is all about hydrodynamics. But he credits much of his inspiration to repeated meetings with engineers -- as many as 30 at a time -- to discuss topics like "flocculation" (the process by which particles form coagulated masses, or flocs)."

  2. 2
    a small loosely aggregated mass of flocculent material suspended in or precipitated from a liquid wordnet
  3. 3
    A flocculant, as used in swimming pools to make particles clump together so they are trapped by the filter. countable, informal, uncountable

    "This can happen for a few reasons, such as adding too much floc or adding too much algaecide prior to floccing."

Verb
  1. 1
    To use a flocculant in (a swimming pool). informal

    "This can happen for a few reasons, such as adding too much floc or adding too much algaecide prior to floccing."

Example

More examples

"It might seem that Mr. Holl, whose initial sketches are glorious watercolors, was an unlikely candidate for a job that is all about hydrodynamics. But he credits much of his inspiration to repeated meetings with engineers -- as many as 30 at a time -- to discuss topics like "flocculation" (the process by which particles form coagulated masses, or flocs)."

Etymology

From Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”), or from French floc (“floc”), from the same Latin source.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.