Words / F / General

flounder

verb/ˈflaʊndə/

B2CEFR level
30/100Rarity: fairly common
NeutralRegister

To struggle clumsily or thrash about, as if unable to keep balance.

He floundered through the deep snow, sinking to his knees at every step.

Similar: struggle, thrash, stumble

Origin: 16th-c., perhaps a blend of 'founder' and 'blunder'.

Topic: clumsy struggle in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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