floppy disk

noun

: a thin plastic disk coated with magnetic material on which data for a computer can be stored

Examples of floppy disk in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Sony, the last floppy disk manufacturer standing, stopped making floppies in 2011. Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 30 Jan. 2024 The law writes over itself, like an old floppy disk. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024 In a few years, comically oversized foam-board novelty checks will be the last remaining evidence of a 20th-century icon, as the paper check goes the way of the landline phone and the floppy disk. Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2023 Umar Shakir / The Verge Looking back, Apple’s ever-changing cable choices have had two big effects: the company has often made decisions that led to industry shakeups that pushed both manufacturers and consumers to move away from actually obsolete tech, like floppy disk drives and SCSI. Umar Shakir, The Verge, 12 Sep. 2023 Hard drives got better and more affordable through the 1980s, yet the floppy disk still flourished. Harry McCracken, Discover Magazine, 23 Sep. 2010 In the Lisa and most other operating systems, two indexes access a program on floppy disk, using up precious random-access memory and increasing the delay in fetching programs from a disk. IEEE Spectrum, 2 July 2023 On Sunday, a Chuck E. Cheese employee named Stewart Coonrod posted a TikTok video that documents the process of installing a new song-and-dance show on an old Chuck E. Cheese animatronics system—a process that involves a 3.5-inch floppy disk and two DVDs. Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 11 Jan. 2023 Another simplification was made in the Macintosh’s file structure, exploiting the small disk space with only one or two floppy disk drives. IEEE Spectrum, 2 July 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'floppy disk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of floppy disk was in 1972

Dictionary Entries Near floppy disk

Cite this Entry

“Floppy disk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/floppy%20disk. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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