Fiber

How to spell fiber

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fiber

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fiber mean?

1. nounA thin threadlike strand of natural or synthetic material, or such material in bulk.
2. nounThe indigestible part of plant foods that aids digestion.
3. nounA person's essential character or moral strength.

Fiber in a sentence

• The jacket is woven from a synthetic fiber that resists water.

• Oats and beans add plenty of fiber to a daily diet.

• The crisis revealed the true moral fiber of the team.

• Engineers ran a single optical fiber under the street to carry the data.

• The nutritionist recommended more fiber to keep his digestion regular.

• Honesty was woven into the very fiber of her being.

Where does fiber come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin fibra, which meant a thread, a filament, or one of the fine strands found in plants and animal tissue. Roman writers used it for the lobes of the liver and for the slender root fibers of plants, so the idea of a thin, threadlike strand was there from the very start. English took it in through the French fibre during the 1600s, when anatomists and naturalists needed a precise term for the tiny strands that make up muscle, nerve, and plant matter. Over time the meaning broadened from individual strands to the bulk material spun into thread or cloth, and later to the indigestible plant matter we now call dietary fiber. The American spelling reverses the French -re ending to -er, matching center and theater; the trap is remembering that the i is a short, clear sound, not the doubled letters some writers expect.

How the word is built

• fiber (from Latin fibra: thread, filament)

British and American spelling

Fiber is the American spelling. British English spells it fibre.