Meaning & use
cotton
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Meanings
noununcountable
a soft white fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant and is used to make thread and cloth.
Grammar: Uncountable when talking about the material: a bale of cotton. As a plant, it can be countable: cottons in the field.
Patterns
- a bale of cotton
- made of cotton
- cotton fields
This shirt is made of pure cotton.
The farmers grow cotton in the southern states.
Cotton was once the main crop in that region.
noununcountable
thread or cloth made from the cotton plant.
Grammar: Uncountable when referring to the finished material; you can say a piece of cotton for a small piece of cloth.
Patterns
- a reel of cotton
- sew with cotton
- cotton fabric
She bought a reel of white cotton to mend the shirt.
The dress is made of light cotton.
I prefer cotton to synthetic fabrics in summer.
verbintransitiveinformal
to begin to understand or realize something, often after a period of confusion.
Grammar: Used in the phrase cotton on, often followed by to: cotton on to something.
Patterns
- cotton on
- cotton on to something
He finally cottoned on to what she meant.
She cottoned on quickly and joined the conversation.
It took me a while to cotton on to the joke.
Word forms
| third person singular | cottons |
|---|---|
| past tense | cottoned |
| past participle | cottoned |
| -ing form | cottoning |
Common combinations
- cotton shirt
- He wore a light cotton shirt to the interview.
- cotton wool
- She cleaned the wound with cotton wool.
- cotton candy
- The children shared a bag of cotton candy at the fair.
- cotton on
- He cottoned on to the plan after a few minutes.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- cottony adjective
- Soft and fluffy like cotton.
Commonly confused: cotton or carton?
cotton vs carton
A carton is a container, often for milk or juice; cotton is the soft fiber.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'cotton' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Cotton is an uncountable material, so 'made of cotton' is correct. 'A cotton of milk' confuses it with 'carton', 'cottoned the ball' wrongly uses it as a verb of movement, and 'a cotton' as a place is not English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cotton”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.