Fibre

How to spell fibre

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fibre

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fibre mean?

1. nounA thin thread or filament, or a material made of such threads, including the indigestible plant matter in food.

Fibre in a sentence

• The doctor recommended eating more fibre to improve digestion.

• This jacket is woven from a synthetic fibre that resists water.

Where does fibre come from?

Language of origin: French

Fibre comes from the Latin word fibra, which meant a thread, a filament, or the fine fibrous strands found in plants and animal tissue. English took the word in the late 1300s through French, where it had become fibre, retaining that French -re ending rather than reshaping it to -er. For centuries it described any thread-like structure, from the strands inside muscle and wood to the threads spun into cloth. The modern sense of dietary fibre, the indigestible plant material that aids digestion, is a much later twentieth-century development. The British and Canadian spelling preserves the French-derived -re ending, which is the chief trap, since American writers use fiber and that variant is everywhere in media and packaging.

How the word is built

• fibr- (from Latin fibra: thread, filament)
• -e (silent terminal e, the British -re spelling)

British and American spelling

Fibre is the British spelling. American English spells it fiber.