textile
Americannoun
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any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting.
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a material, as a fiber or yarn, used in or suitable for weaving.
Glass can be used as a textile.
adjective
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woven or capable of being woven.
textile fabrics.
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of or relating to weaving.
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of or relating to textiles or the production of textiles.
the textile industry.
noun
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any fabric or cloth, esp woven
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raw material suitable to be made into cloth; fibre or yarn
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a non-nudist, as described by nudists; one who wears clothes
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing textile
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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Human Geography - Middle School
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Textile dyeing and finishing operations generate large amounts of contaminated wastewater, making dye removal and water reuse ongoing challenges.
From Science Daily • Jun. 12, 2026
Textile worker Sabina Khatun is in limbo after losing her job during sweeping factory closures, caught up like millions in Bangladesh in the fallout from a 2024 uprising that toppled years of autocratic rule.
From Barron's • Feb. 1, 2026
Textile factory employment in 2023 fell to its weakest annual rate in records going back more than three decades, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 31, 2024
Textile art, whose practitioners were exempted from the ideological strictures of painting or literature.
From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2024
The association secured an endorsement of woman suffrage and equal pay for equal work by the United Textile Workers of America, who met in Providence.
From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI by Harper, Ida Husted
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
