A sprung floor is a floor that absorbs shock, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best kind for dance and indoor sports and physical education, and can enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries. Sprung floors, often referred to as floating floors, are not all the same and can vary in design and performance between different types. Modern sprung floors are supported by foam backing or rubber feet, while traditional floors provide their spring through bending woven wooden battens. Sprung floors have been used in dance halls and performance venues since the 19th century, and are also used in gymnastics, cheerleading, and other athletic activities that require a cushioned surface. The construction of sprung floors can vary, but they generally consist of a performance surface layer on top of a sprung sub-floor with shock-absorbing materials. Sprung floors provide benefits such as injury reduction, enhanced performance, and appropriate traction for users.

One of the earliest on-record sprung-floor ballrooms is Papanti's for dance lessons in Boston, built in 1837. There was also one in the New Zealand Premier House, when expanded in 1872–73.

Dance halls with sprung hard wood floors date back to the late 19th century. The sprung floor at Blackpool Tower Ballroom dates from 1894. The UK's Accrington Conservative Club, built in 1890, had a Grand Ballroom with a sprung floor.^{[citation needed]}

Many other historical dance halls have sprung hard wood floors, such as the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park, Maryland (1933), Willowbrook Ballroom in Chicago (1921), the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon (1914), the Carrillo Ballroom in Santa Barbara, California (1914), and Younger Hall (1929) in St Andrews, Scotland.

Modern sprung floors are designed to dampen bounce and so are sometimes called semi-sprung. A spring floor on the other hand is a type of floor designed to provide bounce; they are used for floor exercises in gymnastics or for cheerleading.

A sprung floor is also sometimes referred to as a floating floor. That term, though, more often refers to a floor that insulates against noise or a raised floor with ducts and wires underneath, as in computer facilities.

The top layer of a sprung floor is a performance surface. This can be either a natural material such as solid wood, engineered wood or rubber, or it can be a synthetic surface such as vinyl, linoleum, or polyurethane.

A sprung floor excluding the surface is often referred to as the sub-floor. Most sprung floors require a level sub-floor to be installed.