Meaning & use
cotton
A soft white fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant and is spun into cloth.
See it in a sentence
The farmers harvested the cotton before the autumn storms could damage the crop.
Her shirt was made of pure cotton, which felt light and breathable in summer heat.
A note on using this word
Cotton is also used as an adjective for clothing made from this fiber, as in a cotton shirt, and appears in the informal phrase cotton on, meaning to begin to understand.
Words with a similar meaning
This term is best learned through its definition and examples.
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Another way to use it
2. verb
To start to understand or realize something, often after a period of confusion.
It took him a while to cotton on to the joke everyone else found obvious.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cotton”, then compare your use with the examples above.