floating point number
compound.compound. a way that computers store numbers with decimal points. It allows the computer to handle very large or very small numbers by moving the decimal point to different positions.
compound. a numerical representation in computing where the decimal point can 'float' rather than being fixed. This format represents a wide range of values by storing a significand and an exponent, similar to scientific notation.
The software uses a floating-point number to store the precise temperature.
When calculating the trajectory of the satellite, the engineers used a floating-point number to maintain high precision across vast distances.
Compound of the verb float and the noun point. The term describes the behaviour of the radix point, which is not fixed in a single position relative to the digits.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often shortened to 'float' in programming contexts; typically used when precision is more important than exactness in financial terms.
Last updated July 22, 2026