Linen
adj, name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Thread or cloth made from flax fiber. uncountable
"Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands."
- 2 white goods or clothing made with linen cloth wordnet
- 3 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."
- 4 a fabric woven with fibers from the flax plant wordnet
- 5 A light beige colour, like that of linen cloth undyed. countable, uncountable
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- 6 a high-quality paper made of linen fibers or with a linen finish wordnet
- 1 Made from linen cloth or thread. not-comparable
- 2 Having the colour linen, light beige. not-comparable
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Don't wash your dirty linen in public."
Etymology
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.
Related phrases
More for "linen"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.