flotsam
Americannoun
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the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water.
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material or refuse floating on water.
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useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.
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a vagrant, penniless population.
the flotsam of the city slums in medieval Europe.
noun
Etymology
Origin of flotsam
1600–10; < Anglo-French floteson, derivative of floter to float < Old English flotian
Explanation
Flotsam is the floating wreckage of a ship. You'll often hear it used with the word jetsam, which refers to floating objects that have been thrown from a ship, usually to lighten it before it sinks. You can keep flotsam and jetsam straight by remembering that flotsam looks like the word, float, and jetsam looks like jettison which means to cast off. Usually it doesn't matter though as flotsam and jetsam are used together as an expression, mostly figuratively to mean things or people who are unwanted or discarded. What about the things that are cast from a ship but sink to the ocean floor instead of floating? That's called lagan.
Vocabulary lists containing flotsam
Seas The Day: Words That Shore Are Beachy
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"To Build a Fire," Vocabulary from the short story
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Life of Pi
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Served over ice in a short glass and topped with fruit-salad flotsam, the elixir is lightly caffeinated, mildly fruity and as refreshing as stepping out of the Hanoi humidity into full-blast air conditioning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
While the garden is rooted in local culture, built bit by bit from the flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles locations and plants native to the ecology, the programming is more global in approach.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2025
"It was impossible not to conclude," he later wrote, that for Powell "the struggle was about achieving long-term objectives, not simply a mastery of the flotsam and jetsam of current events".
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2024
Moreover, Musk’s unbanning of previously banned bad posters has resulted in some truly vile flotsam returning to the platform.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2023
Mitochondria are minute, bean-shaped objects, hundreds of which bob about like so much flotsam in the warm, salty envelope of the cell.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
