wool

See also Wool

English

A sheep being sheared for its wool.

Etymology

Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-Germanic *wullō (cf. Dutch wol, German Wolle, Norwegian ull), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (cf. Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vìlna, Russian волос (volоs), Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /wʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊl

Noun

wool (usually uncountable; plural wools)

1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
   • 2006, Nigel Guy Wilson, Ancient Greece, page 692

     The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back.

2. A cloth or yarn made from the wool of sheep.
   • 2009 January 12, Mireya Navarro, “It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?”:

     Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets.

3. Anything with a texture like that of wool.
   • 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223

     The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation […]

Coordinate terms

• (hair of sheep): goathair, horsehair, qiviut

Hyponyms

• (cloth or yarn): felt, tweed, worsted

Derived terms

Derived terms

andalusian wool breech wool burry wool cotton wool dead pulled wool dyed in the wool fleece wool glass wool ice wool mineral wool much cry and little wool pull the wool over somebody's eyes rag wool scoured wool

seed wool Shetland wool shorn wool steel wool thibet wool virgin wool warm as wool waste of wool wire wool wool grease wool oil woolgathering woollen, woolly woolly, wooly

Translations

hair of sheep, etc.

• Arabic: صوف (ar) (ṣūf) m
• Armenian: բուրդ (hy) (burd), (archaic) գեղմ (hy) (geġm)
• Baluchi: پژم (pažm, pažam)
• Belarusian: воўна (be) (vóŭna) f
• Berber:

  Tashelhit: taḍutt f

• Breton: gloan (br) m
• Bulgarian: вълна (bg) (vǎ̀lna) f
• Catalan: llana (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 羊毛 (cmn) (yángmáo)

• Czech: vlna (cs)
• Dutch: wol (nl) m
• Esperanto: lano (eo)
• Finnish: villa (fi)
• French: laine (fr) f
• Galician: la (gl) f
• Georgian: მატყლი (ka) (matqli)
• German: Wolle (de) f
• Greek: μαλλί (el) (mallí) n
• Hebrew: צֶמֶר (he) (tsémer) m
• Hungarian: gyapjú (hu)
• Icelandic: ull (is)
• Indonesian: wol (id)
• Interlingua: lana
• Irish: olann (ga) f
• Italian: lana (it) f
• Japanese: ウール (ja) (ūru), 羊毛 (ja) (ようもう, yōmō)
• Jèrriais: laine f
• Kazakh: жүн (kk) (jün)
• Korean: 털실 (ko) (teolsil)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: خوری (ku) (xurí)

• Latin: lāna (la) f
• Latvian: vilna (lv) f

• Lithuanian: vilna (lt) f
• Luxembourgish: Woll (lb) f
• Macedonian: волна (mk) (vólna) f
• Malayalam: കമ്പിളി (kampiLi)
• Maltese: suf (mt) m
• Mongolian: ноос (mn) (noos)
• Navajo: aghaaʼ, dibé bighaaʼ, hakʼaz ayání bighaaʼ, Shádiʼááhdę́ę́ʼ tłʼízí bighaaʼ
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ull (nb) m and f

  Nynorsk: ull (nn) f

• Old Church Slavonic: вльна (vlĭna) f
• Old Portuguese: lãa
• Polish: wełna (pl) f
• Portuguese: lã (pt) f
• Romanian: lână (ro) f
• Romansch: launa (rm) f
• Russian: шерсть (ru) (šerstʹ) f
• Scots: oo
• Scottish Gaelic: clòimh (gd) f, olann (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic ву̏на (sh) f

  Latin vȕna (sh) f

• Slovak: vlna (sk) f
• Slovene: volna (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wałma f

• Spanish: lana (es) f
• Swedish: ull (sv) c
• Telugu: బొచ్చు (boccu)
• Turkish: yün (tr)
• Ukrainian: вовна (uk) (vóvna) f
• Welsh: gwlân (cy) m
• Yiddish: וואָל (yi) (vol)

cloth or yarn

• Arabic: صوف (ar) (ṣūf)
• Armenian: բուրդ (hy) (burd)
• Breton: gloanaj (br) m, gloanenn (br) f
• Bulgarian: вълна (bg) (vălna) f, прежда (bg) (prezhda)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 羊毛 (cmn) (yángmáo)

• Czech: vlna (cs)
• Dutch: wol (nl)
• Finnish: villa (fi)
• French: laine (fr) f
• Georgian: შალის ქსოვილი (ka) (šalis k'sovili)
• German: Wolle (de) f
• Greek: μαλλί (el) (mallí) n
• Hungarian: gyapjú (hu)
• Italian: lana (it) f
• Japanese: 羊毛 (ja) (ようもう, yōmō)
• Jèrriais: laine f
• Korean: 털실 (ko) (teolsil)

• Lithuanian: vilnonas (lt) m
• Macedonian: волница (mk) (vólnica) f, преѓа (mk) (préǵa) f
• Navajo: aghaaʼ
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ull (nb) m and f

  Nynorsk: ull (nn) f

• Polish: wełna (pl) f
• Portuguese: lã (pt) f
• Russian: шерсть (ru) (šerst’) f
• Scottish Gaelic: clòimh (gd) f, olann (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian: predja (sh), prtilica (sh)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: wałma f

• Spanish: lana (es) f
• Swedish: ylle (sv) n
• Telugu: ఉన్ని (unni)
• Ukrainian: вовна (uk) (vóvna) f

anything with a texture like that of wool

• Finnish: villa (fi)

Adjective

wool (no comparative or superlative)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Made of wool.

Synonyms

• woollen, woolen

Translations

made of wool — see woollen, woolen

See also

• Wool on Wikipedia.Wikipedia