fibrous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of fibrous
Explanation
Something that's fibrous is coarse and stringy, like thick yarn or twine. Some baskets are made of woven and twisted fibrous branches. Fibrous things look like the fibers that are braided or twisted together to make a length of rope or jute. Many tree roots are fibrous, as are many vines and branches. A complicated hairdo may look like it's made of fibrous cords of hair. When you're eating something fibrous, it's hard to chew, like a chunk of fibrous meat in your stew or a fibrous broccoli stalk in your stir-fry. Fibrous comes from the Latin fibra, "fiber or filament."
Vocabulary lists containing fibrous
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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.
They’re structurally dense, meaning they contain more glandular and fibrous tissue than fat.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
Tremolite is a mineral which - when in its fibrous form - is classified as asbestos and linked to potentially deadly cancers.
From BBC • Mar. 18, 2026
This sensing ability relies partly on how a cell pulls and reshapes the fibrous collagen around it.
From Science Daily • Mar. 16, 2026
The characterization of dense breasts refers to how much fat, glandular tissue, and fibrous tissue are in the mix.
From Slate • Feb. 4, 2026
It tasted like the cardboard covers of our primers, salty, dry, fibrous, but not as satisfyingly chewy.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
