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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lint.

Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/lɪnt/
  1. Clinging fuzzy fluff that clings to fabric or accumulates in one's pockets or navel etc.

    uncountable · usually
    Clean the lint out of the vacuum cleaner's filter.
  2. A fine material made by scraping cotton or linen cloth; used for dressing wounds.

    uncountable · usually
  3. The fibrous coat of thick hairs covering the seeds of the cotton plant.

    uncountable · usually
  4. Raw cotton ready for baling.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin (“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum (“flax”).

verb
  1. To perform a static check on (source code) to detect stylistic or programmatic errors.

    transitive
    You should lint your JavaScript code before committing it.
Where this word comes from

From the lint Unix utility, written in 1979, which analyses programs written in the C language, itself named after the undesirable bits of fiber and fluff found in sheep's wool (see etymology 1).

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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.