fluff

C2+ Topic:Materials & Substances

US /flʌf/ UK /flʌf/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
soft light downy material; trivial or inconsequential content

The pillow shed bits of fluff across the freshly made bed.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · soft light downy material;... down fuzz lint naptriviapaddingfiller

Opposites

substance

Word family

Derived forms fluffyflufferfluffiness

Etymology

Probably an alteration of earlier flue ('fluff, down'), perhaps influenced by puff, attested from the 18th century and partly imitative.

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# fluff

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /flʌf/
**IPA (UK):** /flʌf/

## Meanings
1. soft light downy material; trivial or inconsequential content

## Examples
- The pillow shed bits of fluff across the freshly made bed.

## Synonyms
- down
- fuzz
- lint
- nap
- trivia
- padding
- filler

## Antonyms
- substance

## Derived Forms
- fluffy
- fluffer
- fluffiness

## Etymology
Probably an alteration of earlier flue ('fluff, down'), perhaps influenced by puff, attested from the 18th century and partly imitative.

## AI Etymology
Fluff is probably an alteration of earlier flue ('fluff, down'), perhaps influenced by puff, attested from the 18th century and partly imitative. The history is deliberately cautious: the proposed comparison is useful for orientation, but the wording leaves room for uncertainty rather than forcing a false certainty. In present use, it is used as a noun and verb meaning "soft light downy material; trivial or inconsequential content", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as fluffy, fluffer, and fluffiness, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. Its semantic neighborhood is marked by down, fuzz, lint, and nap on one side and contrasts such as substance on the other, locating the modern specialization without adding a new origin story.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

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