staple

¹ American  

[stay-puhl] / ˈsteɪ pəl /

noun

1. 

   a short piece of wire bent so as to bind together papers, sections of a book, or the like, by driving the ends through the sheets and clinching them on the other side.

2. a similar, often U -shaped piece of wire or metal with pointed ends for driving into a surface to hold a hasp, hook, pin, bolt, wire, or the like.

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verb (used with object)

stapled, stapling

1. to secure or fasten by a staple or staples.

   to staple three sheets together.

staple ² American  

[stay-puhl] / ˈsteɪ pəl /

noun

1. a principal raw material or commodity grown or manufactured in a locality.

2. a principal commodity in a mercantile field; goods in steady demand or of known or recognized quality.

3. a basic or necessary item of food.

   She bought flour, sugar, salt, and other staples.

4. a basic or principal item, thing, feature, element, or part.

   Cowboy dramas are a staple on television.

5. the fiber of wool, cotton, flax, rayon, etc., considered with reference to length and fineness.

6. Textiles. a standard length of textile fibers, representing the average of such fibers taken collectively, as short-staple or long-staple cotton.

7. History/Historical. a town or place appointed by royal authority as the seat of a body of merchants having the exclusive right of purchase of certain classes of goods for export.

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adjective

1. chief or prominent among the products exported or produced by a country or district; chiefly or largely dealt in or consumed.

2. basic, chief, or principal.

   staple industries.

3. principally used.

   staple subjects of conversation.

verb (used with object)

stapled, stapling

1. to sort or classify according to the staple or fiber, as wool.

staple ¹ British  

/ ˈsteɪpəl /

adjective

1. of prime importance; principal

   staple foods

2. (of a commodity) forming a predominant element in the product, consumption, or trade of a nation, region, etc

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noun

1. a staple commodity

2. a main constituent; integral part

3. a principal raw material produced or grown in a region

4. the fibre of wool, cotton, etc, graded as to length and fineness

5. (in medieval Europe) a town appointed to be the exclusive market for one or more major exports of the land

verb

1. (tr) to arrange or sort (wool, cotton, etc) according to length and fineness

staple ² British  

/ ˈsteɪpəl /

noun

1. a short length of thin wire bent into a square U-shape, used to fasten papers, cloth, etc

2. a short length of stiff wire formed into a U-shape with pointed ends, used for holding a hasp to a post, securing electric cables, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to secure (papers, wire, etc) with a staple or staples

Etymology

Origin of staple¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English stapel “support, stake, post,” Old English stapol “post, column”; cognate with Middle Dutch stapel “foundation,” German Stapel “pile,” Old Norse stǫpull “pillar”

Origin of staple²

First recorded in 1350–1400; late Middle English staple, stapel “official market where merchants have trading rights,” from Anglo-French staple, Old French estaple, from Medieval Latin stapula, staplus, from Middle Dutch stapel, stapol

Explanation

Bread. Milk. Gasoline. Xboxes. What do these all have in common? They're all a staple of most people's consumption — basic products for which there will always be a demand. Staple also has the broader more abstract sense of being anything that's popular or necessary. A staple of the political scene is partisan bickering; a staple of Broadway theater is the musical revival. And let's not forget another meaning — those handy little metal clasps that hold things together. Though most people wouldn't consider a staple a staple.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

staple stapled stapling

Chipotle shares, meanwhile, have fallen 11.7% over that period, amid a bigger fast-casual slump and malaise over pricier “slop bowls” that have become a staple in that segment of the restaurant industry.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

Ube was a staple of Philippine gardens as long as 5,000 years ago, boiled and eaten by families as a substitute to rice when their provisions ran out.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Actor Dennis Haskins was a staple at the now-shuttered Dimples karaoke bar in Burbank — so much so that many patrons thought he owned it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Elephant meat is common in some wildlife-rich communities, particularly when meat from legal hunts is distributed locally, but it is not an everyday staple.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

It appeared that pea soup was to be the menu staple.

From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys

One problem was that her well-organized husband had stapled many invoices and other documents together.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

In contrast, a running joke about the Donald obsessing about his hair has a fun, if gleefully nasty payoff in an episode involving Trump getting his head surgically stapled to impede his male pattern baldness.

From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2024

“Crypto dot com Arena? Staples Center is so stapled to my brain that I can’t call it anything else.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024

In 2011, the Chinese Embassy issued stapled visas to five karate players from Arunachal Pradesh state for a championship in the Chinese city of Quanghou.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 27, 2023

She holds up a stapled set of papers that look like a formerly classified, now somewhat declassified CIA document.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

I was literally stapling posters to telephone poles—“playing here on Friday.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Iona is perched on a table by a windowsill, stapling albums to the ceiling as decor to liven up the record store she runs — not that the place needs much livening-up, considering Iona’s look.

From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026

Through a technique known as peptide stapling, the research team modified the B-chain of relaxin-3, replacing blocks of amino acids within them with artificial ones that introduce 'chemical bridges' between them.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024

Eventually, at Mario’s suggestion, they put out an issue on their own, borrowing money from another brother to print it, folding and stapling the copies themselves.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2022

She was stapling some mimeographed sheets of paper together.

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger

Related Words

• predominant