Meaning & use
fluffball
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Meanings
nouncountableinformal
a small animal, especially a pet, that is very soft and covered in thick fluffy fur
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a fluffball' or 'two fluffballs'.
Patterns
- a little fluffball
- a fluffy fluffball
Our new kitten is a tiny fluffball who sleeps all day.
The puppy grew from a fluffball into a large, energetic dog.
She carried the fluffball in her arms like a baby.
nouncountableinformal
a small round mass of soft fibers or fluff, such as dust or lint
Grammar: Countable; often used for dust or lint that gathers in corners.
Patterns
- a fluffball of dust
- fluffballs under the bed
I swept a fluffball of dust from under the sofa.
Fluffballs of lint had collected in the dryer filter.
Word forms
| plural | fluffballs |
|---|
Common combinations
- a little fluffball
- The little fluffball ran across the floor.
- a fluffy fluffball
- He called the rabbit a fluffy fluffball.
- a fluffball of a dog
- Their pet is a fluffball of a dog that hardly ever barks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ball of fluff
- The same idea, but it is a phrase rather than a single word and can sound slightly more descriptive.
- fuzzball
- Very similar, but 'fuzzball' is often used for a ball of hair or lint rather than a cute animal.
Commonly confused: fluffball or fluff?
fluffball vs fluff
'Fluff' is the soft material itself; a 'fluffball' is a small round mass of it or an animal covered in it.
Practice
Their new puppy is such a ______ that you can barely see its eyes.
Choose one answer.
A 'fluffball' is a cute, very fluffy animal, which fits the sentence. 'Fluff' is the soft material, 'fluffy' is an adjective, and 'fluffing' is a verb form, so none of them can follow 'a' as a noun here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fluffball”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.