Tissue

How to spell tissue

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tissue

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tissue mean?

1. nounA piece of soft, thin absorbent paper used for wiping or blowing the nose.
2. nounA group of similar cells that together perform a specific function in a living organism.

Tissue in a sentence

• She pulled a tissue from the box to wipe her eyes.

• The surgeon removed a small sample of tissue for the laboratory to examine.

• He reached for another tissue as his nose began to run in the cold.

• Scar tissue formed slowly along the healing wound.

Where does tissue come from?

Language of origin: French

Tissue comes from the Old French word tissu, which was the past participle of tistre, meaning 'to weave', and that verb traces back to the Latin texere, 'to weave' (the same root that gives us 'textile' and 'texture'). When it first entered English in the 1300s it referred to a rich, finely woven band or fabric, often interlaced with gold or silver thread. From that idea of something woven and intricately interlaced, the word stretched in the 1800s to the biological sense: an interwoven structure of similar cells forming part of a body. The familiar meaning of a soft, light disposable paper came later still, named for its thin, gauzy, almost woven-looking texture. The double 's' and the unexpected '-ue' ending both survive straight from the French spelling, which is exactly where writers slip.

How the word is built

• tiss- (from French tissu: woven)
• -ue (noun ending)