wool
n. C / Un. the soft, thick hair that grows on sheep and some other animals. People use it to make warm clothes like sweaters and blankets.
n. the dense, fibrous hair forming the fleece of sheep and certain other caprine animals. Used as a textile fiber, it is valued for its insulation and moisture-wicking properties.
This sweater is made from pure wool.
Farmers shear the sheep every spring to collect the wool before the weather gets too hot.
The textile industry distinguishes between various grades of wool based on fiber diameter, with finer strands commanding a significant premium for high-end garment production.
From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic wullu, from Proto-Germanic wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Norwegian ull; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vi̇̀lna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana. The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ⟨wu⟩ in favour of ⟨wo⟩, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).
Uncountable when referring to the material in general; countable when referring to specific types, grades, or balls of yarn.