What does buoyant mean?
Word: Buoyant
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Buoyant means able to float or to keep things floating. It also describes a cheerful mood in which you expect good things to happen.
Synonyms: afloat
Antonyms: gloomy
Word origin: From Spanish boyante, floating, or French buoyant; related to buoy.
How do you spell buoyant?
Syllables: buoy - ant
Tricky part: The u comes before the o: b-u-o-y. Because the word sounds like boy, students write bouyant or boyant.
Watch out for: bouyant, boyant, buoyiant
Memory tip: Inside buoyant sits buoy, the floating marker at sea. Spell buoy first, u before o, and you have the hardest part done.
Buoyant in a sentence
Example 1: A rubber duck stays buoyant however hard you push it under the water.
Example 2: Sales of cricket bats in Jalandhar stayed buoyant all through the World Cup season.
Example 3: The whole village was in a buoyant mood after the first monsoon showers.
Fun Fact
Salt water is more buoyant than fresh water, which is why people float so easily in the very salty Dead Sea.
Practise the CREST Way
Spellacadabra
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
buoy___
a) aunt
b) ent
c) ant
d) int
Show answer
c) ant. The adjective ends in ant, the same ending as in pleasant and distant.
Word Champ
Choose the correct option for the blank:
According to the dictionary, a person in a buoyant mood is cheerful and feeling ___ that things will be successful.
a) sure
b) afraid
c) shure
d) doubtful
Show answer
a) sure. Someone buoyant expects success, so feels sure of it; shure is a misspelling, and afraid and doubtful say the opposite.
Spell Probe
One word in the sentence is misspelt. Choose the meaning of that word:
A life jacket keeps a swimmer buoyant, so our coach makes every begginer wear one in the deep end of the pool.
a) a large tank of water for swimming
b) a person who is just starting to learn something
c) able to float or keep things floating
d) a person who trains a team or a player
Show answer
b) a person who is just starting to learn something. Beginner doubles its n, not its g, so begginer is the slip; it names someone new to a skill.
Word Tally
Give 2 marks for each misspelt word. How many marks in all?
buoyant, cheerfull, optimistic, enthousiastic, delighted
a) 8
b) 2
c) 6
d) 4
Show answer
d) 4. Cheerful ends with one l and enthusiastic has no o after the th, so two words are wrong: 2 x 2 = 4 marks.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is the most buoyant in water?
a) an iron nail
b) a cork
c) a glass marble
d) a pebble
Show answer
b) a cork
2. Prices on the stock market were buoyant last week. What were they doing?
a) rising or staying high
b) being kept secret
c) falling sharply
d) staying exactly the same
Show answer
a) rising or staying high
