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Definition of "cotton" []

  • Any of various shrubby plants of the genus Gossypium, having showy flowers and grown for the soft white downy fibers surrounding oil-rich seeds. (noun)
  • The fiber of any of these plants, used in making textiles and other products. (noun)
  • Thread or cloth manufactured from the fiber of these plants. (noun)
  • The crop of these plants. (noun)
  • Any of various soft downy substances produced by other plants, as on the seeds of a cottonwood. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cotton" in a sentence
  • "Vermont, in the year following, the _cotton gin_ was invented, and an unparalleled impulse given to the cultivation of cotton."
  • "_A cotton and silk umbrella_ means one umbrella partly cotton and partly silk; _cotton_ and _silk_ modify the same noun -- _umbrella_."
  • "-- _A cotton and a silk umbrella_ means two umbrellas -- one cotton and the other silk; the word umbrella is understood after _cotton_."
Words like "cotton"