Plastic

How to spell plastic

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce plastic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does plastic mean?

1. nounA synthetic or semi-synthetic material that can be moulded into solid objects.
2. adjectiveCapable of being moulded, shaped, or easily influenced.

Plastic in a sentence

• noun

  The toy was made of cheap, brittle plastic that cracked easily.

• adjective

  Warm clay becomes soft and plastic in the hands.

• noun

  The council now collects glass, paper and plastic for recycling.

• adjective

  Young minds are remarkably plastic and quick to absorb new habits.

Where does plastic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek plastikos, meaning 'able to be moulded or shaped', which was built on the verb plassein, 'to mould, to form, to shape'. English took it in during the 1600s through the Latin plasticus and French plastique, first as a learned adjective describing anything capable of being moulded, as in the 'plastic arts' of sculpture and modelling. The familiar modern noun arrived much later: in the early twentieth century chemists used 'plastic' for the new synthetic materials that could be softened and pressed into shape, and by the 1920s the bare noun for those substances was everywhere. The same Greek root sits inside relatives such as 'protoplasm' and 'cytoplasm', and it explains the spelling, since the core stays plast- before the simple -ic ending.

How the word is built

• plast- (from Greek plastos: moulded, formed)
• -ic (adjective suffix)