cloth

B1 Topic:Materials & Substances

US /klɔθ/ UK /klɒθ/ See IPA manual

Freq #5610

Meanings

1

noun
Material made by weaving or knitting fibres, used to make clothes and other things.

The dress was made from soft cotton cloth.
2

noun
A piece of this material used for a particular job, such as cleaning.

He wiped the table with a damp cloth.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · material made by weaving or... fabric material textile

Word family

Forms cloths

Derived forms altar-clothback-clothbackclothbarkclothbarmclothbook-clothbreech-clothbreechclothbroadclothcereclothcharclothcheesecloth

Related forms clothe clothes clothing

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

chamois cloth
a soft piece of chamois leather used to clean or polish surfaces

Noun + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

Cut your coat according to your cloth

Etymology

From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), 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 kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), N…

cloth Middle English clāþ Old English *klaiþą Proto-Germanic *gleyt- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# cloth

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /klɔθ/
**IPA (UK):** /klɒθ/
**Frequency rank:** 5610

## Meanings
1. Material made by weaving or knitting fibres, used to make clothes and other things.
2. A piece of this material used for a particular job, such as cleaning.

## Examples
- The dress was made from soft cotton cloth.
- He wiped the table with a damp cloth.

## Derived Forms
- altar-cloth
- back-cloth
- backcloth
- barkcloth
- barmcloth
- book-cloth
- breech-cloth
- breechcloth
- broadcloth
- cerecloth
- charcloth
- cheesecloth

## Related Forms
- clothe
- clothes
- clothing

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: cloth
- Root: clāþ
- Root: *klaiþą
- Root: *gleyt-

## Etymology
From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), 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 kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), N…

## AI Etymology
cloth is a noun. It is from Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), 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”). Historical forms in the chain include cloth (Middle English), clāþ (Old English), *klaiþą (Proto-Germanic), and *gleyt- (Proto-Indo-European). Current senses include material made by weaving or knitting fibres, used to make clothes and other things and a piece of this material used for a particular job, such as cleaning. Derived forms include altar-cloth, back-cloth, backcloth, barkcloth, and barmcloth. Related words include clothe, clothes, and clothing.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

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