Flannel

How to spell flannel

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce flannel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flannel mean?

1. nounA soft woven fabric, usually of wool or cotton, with a slightly fuzzy surface.
2. nounA small cloth used with soap and water for washing the face and body.

Flannel in a sentence

• He packed a warm flannel shirt for the camping trip.

• She wrung out the flannel and wiped the toddler's sticky hands.

• The winter pyjamas were made of brushed flannel.

• A clean flannel hung neatly beside the bathroom sink.

Where does flannel come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

Flannel is most often traced to the Welsh word gwlanen, meaning a small woollen article or piece of flannel, which itself grew from gwlan, the ordinary Welsh word for 'wool'. English seems to have picked the term up in the 1500s, when the soft, loosely woven woollen cloth made along the Welsh borders became widely traded, and the awkward Welsh consonant cluster was gradually smoothed into the familiar English spelling. An alternative suggestion links it to the Old French flaine, a kind of coarse wool or blanket, but the Welsh route is generally preferred and fits the cloth's well known association with Wales. Over time the word stretched far beyond the cloth itself: in British use a flannel became the small square cloth you wash your face with, and informally 'flannel' came to mean smooth, evasive, flattering talk that conceals a lack of substance. The doubled n and the single l at the end are the spelling points worth fixing in memory, since the word looks as though it might take a second l.

How the word is built

• flannel (single root; likely from Welsh gwlanen 'woollen article', from gwlan 'wool')