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cotton

Definition

Cotton comes from a plant called the cotton plant. The cotton plant has white, fluffy balls on it that are called cotton bolls. The cotton bolls are made up of thousands of tiny fibres. These fibres are what are used to make cotton.

How can the word be used?

Cotton is a soft, fluffy fiber that is used to make fabric.

cotton

Different forms of the word

Noun: cotton.

Adjective: cottony.

Verb: cotton, cottoned, cottoning.

Pronoun: cotton.

Etymology

The word "cotton" comes from the Arabic word "qutn" or "qutun". This was the usual word for cotton in medieval Arabic. Marco Polo in chapter 2 in his book, describes a province he calls Khotan in Turkestan, today's Xinjiang, where cotton was grown in abundance. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, and English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import, but cotton was rare in the Romance-speaking lands until imports from the Arabic-speaking lands in the later medieval era at transformatively lowered prices.

Question

Look at the clothing you are wearing. What items contain cotton?