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fiber - 7 dictionary results
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fi⋅ber

  [fahy-ber]
Use fiber in a Sentence
–noun
1. a fine, threadlike piece, as of cotton, jute, or asbestos.
2. a slender filament: a fiber of platinum.
3. filaments collectively.
4. matter or material composed of filaments: a plastic fiber.
5. something resembling a filament.
6. an essential character, quality, or strength: people of strong moral fiber.
7. Botany.
a. filamentous matter from the bast tissue or other parts of plants, used for industrial purposes.
b. a slender, threadlike root of a plant.
c. a slender, tapered cell which, with like cells, serves to strengthen tissue.
8. Anatomy, Zoology. a slender, threadlike element or cell, as of nerve, muscle, or connective tissue.
9. Nutrition. Also called bulk, dietary fiber, roughage.
a. the structural part of plants and plant products that consists of carbohydrates, as cellulose and pectin, that are wholly or partially indigestible and when eaten stimulate peristalsis in the intestine.
b. food containing a high amount of such carbohydrates, as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
10. Chemistry. vulcanized fiber.
11. Optics. optical fiber.
Also, especially British, fibre.

Origin:
1350–1400; 1970–75 for def. 9; ME fibre (< MF) < L fibra filament

Related forms:
fi⋅ber⋅less, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Learn More About Fiber
Find Out the Facts About Fiber and How It Can Improve Your Health.
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Get The Fiber You Need
Save $2 And Make Fiber Part Of Your Healthy Regimen.
www.Benefiber.com
fi·ber   (fī'bər)   
n.  
  1. A slender, elongated, threadlike object or structure.
  2. Botany One of the elongated, thick-walled cells that give strength and support to plant tissue.
  3. Anatomy
    1. Any of the filaments constituting the extracellular matrix of connective tissue.
    2. Any of various elongated cells or threadlike structures, especially a muscle fiber or a nerve fiber.
    3. A natural or synthetic filament, as of cotton or nylon, capable of being spun into yarn.
    4. Material made of such filaments.
    5. Something that provides substance or texture.
    6. Essential character: "stirred the deeper fibers of my nature" (Oscar Wilde).
    7. Basic strength or toughness; fortitude: lacking in moral fiber.
    1. A natural or synthetic filament, as of cotton or nylon, capable of being spun into yarn.
    2. Material made of such filaments.
    3. Something that provides substance or texture.
    4. Essential character: "stirred the deeper fibers of my nature" (Oscar Wilde).
    5. Basic strength or toughness; fortitude: lacking in moral fiber.
    1. Something that provides substance or texture.
    2. Essential character: "stirred the deeper fibers of my nature" (Oscar Wilde).
    3. Basic strength or toughness; fortitude: lacking in moral fiber.
  6. Coarse, indigestible plant matter, consisting primarily of polysaccharides such as cellulose, that when eaten stimulates intestinal peristalsis. Also called bulk, roughage.

[French fibre, from Old French, from Latin fibra.]
fi'bered adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fiber

Fi"ber\, Fibre \Fi"bre\,, n. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]

1. One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle.

2. Any fine, slender thread, or threadlike substance; as, a fiber of spun glass; especially, one of the slender rootlets of a plant.

3. Sinew; strength; toughness; as, a man of real fiber.

Yet had no fibers in him, nor no force. --Chapman.

4. A general name for the raw material, such as cotton, flax, hemp, etc., used in textile manufactures.

Fiber gun, a kind of steam gun for converting, wood, straw, etc., into fiber. The material is shut up in the gun with steam, air, or gas at a very high pressure which is afterward relieved suddenly by letting a lid at the muzzle fly open, when the rapid expansion separates the fibers.

Fiber plants (Bot.), plants capable of yielding fiber useful in the arts, as hemp, flax, ramie, agave, etc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : fiber
Spanish: fibra,
German: die Faser,
Japanese: 繊維
More Translations »

fiber 
1540, from Fr. fibre, from O.Fr. fibre, from L. fibra "a fiber, filament," of uncertain origin, perhaps related to L. filum "thread," or from root of findere "to split." Fiberboard is from 1897, Fiberglas is 1937, U.S. registered trademark name; and fiber optics is 1956. Medical fibrosis (1873) is a Mod.L. hybrid, with Gk. suffix -osis.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: fi·ber
Variant: or fi·bre /'fI-b&r/
Function: noun
1 : a thread or a structure or object resembling athread: as a : a strand of nerve tissue : AXON, DENDRITE b : one of the filaments composing most of the intercellular matrix of connective tissue c : one of the elongated contractile cells ofmuscle tissue
2 : mostly indigestible material in food that stimulates the intestine to peristalsis called also bulk, dietary fiber, roughage
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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fiber fi·ber (fī'bər)
n.

  1. A slender thread or filament.
  2. Extracellular filamentous structures such as collagenic or elastic connective tissue fibers.
  3. The nerve cell axon with its glial envelope.
  4. An elongated threadlike cell, such as a muscle cell or one of the epithelial cells of the lens of the eye.
  5. Coarse, indigestible plant matter, consisting primarily of polysaccharides such as cellulose, that when eaten stimulates intestinal peristalsis. Also called roughage.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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fiber   (fī'bər)  Pronunciation Key 
  1. The parts of grains, fruits, and vegetables that contain cellulose and are not digested by the body. Fiber helps the intestines absorb water, which increases the bulk of the stool and causes it to move more quickly through the colon.
  2. One of the elongated, thick-walled cells, often occurring in bundles, that give strength and support to tissue in vascular plants. Fibers are one type of sclerenchyma cell.
  3. Any of the elongated cells of skeletal or cardiac muscle, made up of slender threadlike structures called myofibrils.
  4. The axon of a neuron.

fibrous adjective
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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