rayon
Americannoun
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a regenerated, semisynthetic textile filament made from cellulose, cotton linters, or wood chips by treating these with caustic soda and carbon disulfide and passing the resultant solution, viscose, through spinnerets.
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fabric made of this filament.
adjective
noun
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any of a number of textile fibres made from wood pulp or other forms of cellulose
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any fabric made from such a fibre
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(modifier) consisting of or involving rayon
a rayon shirt
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of rayon
First recorded in 1920–25; apparently based on ray 1
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.
Inside of her Hawaii room, where Barnett boasts having some of the first-ever rayon Hawaiian shirts, there’s even a closet stockpiled with tiki souvenirs, photos of Elvis Presley and decorative masks.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2025
It also had splashes of color: a gentle yellow, a rusty orange, a light brown and a mossy green, in the form of rayon fabrics made by Dupont covering the walls.
From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2024
All contained cotton, in some cases mixed with other textiles such as spandex and rayon.
From Reuters • Sep. 1, 2023
These tampons are made of cotton, rayon, or a blend of both ingredients.
From Salon • Jun. 22, 2022
But rayon is both natural and artificial, being made from wood.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
