Floating breakwater has the advantages of environmental protection,economy,and mobility,and the constraints of reliability and wave dissipation effect exist at the same time. Many types of research focus on improving its better wave dissipation performance. We take single,double,flexible,floating,and other types of floating breakwater as the principal line,summarize the research achievements,means,and progress of floating breakwater,induce the hydrodynamic characteristics of various types of floating breakwaters using physical model test and numerical simulation,and give the practical engineering cases,which can guide further research and exploration of floating breakwater.