cloth
/klɔθ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.03 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes, woven fabric specifically.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Specifically, a tablecloth, especially as spread before a meal or removed afterwards.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: (not always differentiated) fabric, material (fabric sense), textile; see also Thesaurus:fabric"
- "In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally."
- "“It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth.[…]”"
- "There were other types of looms for producing various specialised types of cloth, for example fustians and velvets, but there is not space here to discuss these."
- "One day he came, as I thought accidentally, to dinner. My huſband was very much engaged in buſineſs, and quitted the room ſoon after the cloth was removed."
- "The first room the people enter was formerly the Presence Chamber, which is hung completely with black, and at the r-end a cloth of estate, with a chair of estate standing upon the Haut-place under the state."
Etymology
From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaiþ, from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)), a form of *gleh₁y- (“to smear; to stick”). Cognate with Scots clath (“cloth”), North Frisian klaid (“dress, garment”), Saterland Frisian Klood (“dress, apparel”), West Frisian klaad, kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk klede, Swedish kläde (“cloth”), Icelandic klæði (“cloth, dressing”), Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: cloth, clāþ, *klaiþ, *klaiþą, *gleyt-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /klɔθ/
- British English: /klɒθ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
cloths (plural)
clothes (obsolete, plural)
cloath (alternative, obsolete)
clath (alternative, Scotland)
clathe (alternative, Scotland)
claith (alternative, Scotland)