textile

American  

[teks-tahyl, -til] / ˈtɛks taɪl, -tɪl /

noun

textiles plural

1. any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting.

2. a material, as a fiber or yarn, used in or suitable for weaving.

   Glass can be used as a textile.

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adjective

1. woven or capable of being woven.

   textile fabrics.

2. of or relating to weaving.

3. of or relating to textiles or the production of textiles.

   the textile industry.

textile British  

/ ˈtɛkstaɪl /

noun

1. any fabric or cloth, esp woven

2. raw material suitable to be made into cloth; fibre or yarn

3. a non-nudist, as described by nudists; one who wears clothes

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adjective

1. of or relating to fabrics or the making of fabrics

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• textiles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of textile

1520–30; < Latin textilis woven, textile (noun use of neuter) woven fabric, equivalent to text ( us ), past participle of texere to weave + -ilis, -ile -ile

Explanation

A textile is something made by knitting, weaving, or crocheting fibers together. A textile is a cloth. You’re probably wearing a textile right now! Textile comes from the Latin word, textilis for "woven fabric” and that's exactly what it is. If you’re in the textile business, you’re dealing with the stuff that gets turned into clothes, flags, dishrags, or anything else made of cloth. If you knit a scarf, you create a hand-made textile — although the word is more often used in art or industry, as in textile design or textile imports.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

textile textiles

Under his leadership, Benin, traditionally a cotton producer, is entering the textile industry.

From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026

He blunders on Warren Buffett, stating that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, hasn’t made a garment “in over fifty years,” but the company only closed its textile operations 41 years ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Modern balls often have multiple layers, including "a bladder, then a textile layer, then foam and another few layers like that," said Phillips.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026

Vikings weren’t just “simple, uncivilized, barbaric hordes,” says historian after a huge 1,000-year-old textile production site was discovered.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026

“Class of seventy-four. A lot of older alums moved away. Lambert lost a lot of jobs when I-26 was built to the north and then again when the textile plant and auto factory shut down.”

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson

"If you look at just home textiles, Pakistan's share of UK exports are at around 55%, whereas India's is just 6-7%. That's the gap we can finally cover."

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

"Simple things from textiles to high-end things, all 1.4 billion people will need. And instead of being imported, all will get manufactured," he said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026

His images conjure illuminated manuscripts, textiles, hieroglyphics, board games, musical scores, and tribal and children’s art, while echoing the structures of animals, crystals, plants and cells.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Unlike conventional textiles, where color is applied through dyeing, sea silk generates its golden hue from the arrangement of proteins within the fiber itself.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 12, 2026

She watched the bored-looking merchants inside their tiny stalls, smoking, or spitdng into brass spittoons, their faces emerging from the shadows now and then to peddle textiles and fur-collared poostin coats to passersby.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Related Words

• cloth
• fiber
• goods
• yarn