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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

linen.

Thread or cloth made from flax fiber.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlɪnɪn/
  1. Thread or cloth made from flax fiber.

    uncountable
  2. Domestic textiles, such as tablecloths, bedding, towels, underclothes, etc., that are made of linen or linen-like fabrics of cotton or other fibers; linens.

    countable
    She put the freshly cleaned linens into the linen closet.
  3. A light beige colour, like that of linen cloth undyed.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lynnen, lynen, from Old English līnen (“linen", "made of flax”), from Proto-West Germanic *līnīn (“made of flax”), from Proto-Germanic *līną (“flax”), from Proto-Indo-European *līno- (“flax”), equivalent to line + -en. Cognate with Latin līnum (“flax”) and thus also Linum. More at line.

adj/ˈlɪnɪn/
  1. Made from linen cloth or thread.

    not-comparable
  2. Having the colour linen, light beige.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lynnen, lynen, from Old English līnen (“linen", "made of flax”), from Proto-West Germanic *līnīn (“made of flax”), from Proto-Germanic *līną (“flax”), from Proto-Indo-European *līno- (“flax”), equivalent to line + -en. Cognate with Latin līnum (“flax”) and thus also Linum. More at line.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.