fibrous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word 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.
The fibrous leftover from beer production also serves as a "local alternative," Munk said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
Once changed, the stellate cells release fibrous proteins that build the characteristic bands within the tumor.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026
"They're not as fibrous as the mangoes you get in the supermarket," she explains.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
They’re structurally dense, meaning they contain more glandular and fibrous tissue than fat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
—All but one, there, too long to hide, a dark face like a skull, eyes shut and sunken, a mat of long, fibrous hair.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
