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

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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

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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

Born in 1940, his mother was a textile worker and his father was a former military officer whose experience during the wartime evacuation of Dunkirk had a profound impact on his mental health.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

Instead, he’s in Sweden, raising two boys, working as a quality control inspector for a textile company and playing amateur soccer for a team in the country’s fifth division.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Nearby a mass-produced printed cotton textile shows mangoes against a sea of fireworks during the National Day parade of the same year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

A newly developed textile covering helped strawberry plants produce more than three times as much fruit in tunnel field trials, while showing no harmful effects on plant health.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

Metallurgy and textile plants didn’t ring the city, filling the air with smog.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Cryptocurrency heists have become North Korea’s most lucrative and vital revenue stream, replacing exports of coal and textiles that have been crippled by global sanctions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

The EU's trade enforcement chief, Denis Redonnet, said sectors facing "sustained and abnormal" import increases included machinery, textiles, basic metals and chemicals.

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

This year's patron, knitwear designer Helen Robertson, said: "I think wool week is just such a fantastic organisation and festival, and it's really brought Shetland textiles to life."

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Ali likes to use expansive spaces and incorporate fabrics and textiles, whether it’s a red, sequin-covered chador or a tubular-looking worm made out of polyester, Lycra and spandex.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Accompanying the noble few in the tombs to the world of the deceased were copper beads and bracelets, stone tablets and collars, textiles and awls, and, sometimes, stone pipes in the shape of surreal animals.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

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Related Words

• cloth
• fiber
• goods
• yarn

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