stringy

American  

[string-ee] / ˈstrɪŋ i /

adjective

• stringier,
  comparative
• stringiest
  superlative

1. resembling a string or strings; consisting of strings or stringlike pieces.

   stringy weeds; a stringy fiber.

2. coarsely or toughly fibrous, as meat.

3. sinewy or wiry, as a person.

4. ropy, as a glutinous liquid.

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stringy British  

/ ˈstrɪŋɪ /

adjective

1. made of strings or resembling strings

2. (of meat, etc) fibrous

3. (of a person's build) wiry; sinewy

4. (of liquids) forming in strings

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stringiness
  noun
• stringily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• stringier
  comparative
• stringiest
  superlative

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Etymology

Origin of stringy

First recorded in 1660–70; string + -y ¹

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Explanation

Anything stringy is made of skinny strands. Some vegetables, like celery or spaghetti squash, are stringy. Long straight hair that hasn’t been washed in awhile can also get stringy. If you have to chew extra hard to make it through a piece of meat, it's stringy. And people who are long, lean, and strong are sometimes described as stringy, or as having stringy muscles. This connection between string and tendons or ligaments can also be seen in words like hamstring and heartstrings. Both string and stringy come from the Old English streng, "line or cord."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stringy stringier stringiest

Muenster is less assertive but more accommodating: its mild butteriness stands beside the sauce without competing, and it softens agreeably in summer warmth without becoming stringy or oily.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026

And that is exactly what his company's Kamakurayama Natto, touted as "extremely stringy" but minus "stinkiness and bitterness," seeks to achieve.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

"They are currently called 'the stringy things' and 'the drummy things'," laughs Franglen.

From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025

In this case: a stringy slot corner who never had been credited for a sack in his college career.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024

We first tried eating the pokeweed raw, but it was awfully bitter, so we boiled it—singing “Poke Salad Annie” in anticipation—but it still tasted sour and stringy, and our tongues itched for days afterward.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

While she vigorously stirred her bowl of bibimbap topped with natto, Smith knew that this would only make it even stringier.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

Using a sieve strains out the stringier part of the albumen to ensure consistency.

From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2023

“Their flesh is slightly stringier and more juicy than some other varieties when cooked, so they’re good for mashing and incorporating into baked goods and desserts.”

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 26, 2021

They are instead almost uniformly lithe and Olympian, their bodies remorselessly optimum-scaled, narrower, stringier, more compact.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 11, 2013

Soviet consumers can thus expect thinner milk and stringier beef this winter.

From Time Magazine Archive

You'd have hitched up with the stringiest sort of ballet-girl and been to-day a stable-boy in the Humpelmeier Circus.

From Pandora's Box A Tragedy in Three Acts by Frank Wedekind

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