What's a better word for floater?

A better word for floater depends entirely on the context in which you are using it, because floater has many different meanings. If you mean a floater as a person who drifts between social groups without belonging to one, better words include drifter, wanderer, transient, nomad, free spirit, or social butterfly. If you mean a floater in a workplace, like a nurse or employee who covers different departments, better terms are substitute, relief worker, utility worker, or flexible staff. If you mean a floater in sports like basketball, where a shot is tossed high over defenders, better words are teardrop, scoop shot, or floater shot is itself the term. If you mean a floater as an eye floater in vision, the medical term is muscae volitantes or vitreous floater. If you mean a floater as something floating in a drink or pool, you could say debris, speck, or particle. If you mean a person who is emotionally ungrounded, you could say aimless person, unanchored person, or drifter. Choosing a better word means picking the one that removes the slang ambiguity and precisely describes whether you mean social behavior, work role, medical symptom, or physical object.