Meaning & use
staple
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Meanings
nouncountable
A basic item, especially a food, that people need or use all the time.
Grammar: Countable; often followed by of: a staple of the diet.
Patterns
- a staple of something
- a staple in something
Rice is a staple in many countries across Asia.
A good coat is a winter wardrobe staple.
Pasta and canned tomatoes are staples in her kitchen.
nouncountable
A small piece of bent wire that is pressed through sheets of paper to hold them together.
Grammar: Countable: a box of staples.
Patterns
- staples for a stapler
The stapler is out of staples again.
He pulled the staple out of the corner of the page.
A single staple held the contract together.
verbtransitive
To fasten papers or other material together with small bent wires pushed through them.
Grammar: Takes an object: staple the pages, often followed by together or to.
Patterns
- staple something together
- staple something to something
Please staple the receipt to the form.
She stapled the pages together and handed them in.
He stapled a poster to the wooden board.
adjectivebefore a noun
Main or regular, as in the thing most commonly used, eaten or talked about.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: staple foods.
Patterns
- a staple diet
- a staple food
Corn is the staple food in much of the region.
Complaining about the weather is a staple topic of conversation.
Fish was the staple diet of the island.
Word forms
| plural | staples |
|---|---|
| third person singular | staples |
| past tense | stapled |
| past participle | stapled |
| -ing form | stapling |
Common combinations
- dietary staple
- Bread is a dietary staple in many European homes.
- staple food
- Wheat is a staple food for billions of people.
- a staple of
- Burgers are a staple of the cafe's menu.
- staple the pages
- Staple the pages before you give them out.
- staple gun
- He fixed the cloth to the frame with a staple gun.
- pantry staple
- Flour and oil are pantry staples.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mainstay
- Mainstay is the thing something depends on most, and it can be a person or an idea, not just a food.
- essential
- Essential is broader and can describe any necessary thing, whereas staple suggests something regularly used or stocked.
- fastener
- Fastener is a general term for anything that holds things together, while a staple is a particular kind of bent wire.
- basic
- Basic describes a simple, standard thing, but staple suggests it is relied upon repeatedly.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: staple or stable?
staple vs stable
Stable means steady and not likely to change, or a building for horses. It is not the same as staple, which means a basic item or a wire fastener.
Practice
Rice is a ___ of the diet in many countries.
Choose one answer.
A staple is a basic food relied on regularly. Stable means steady, a stapler is an office tool, and a steeple is part of a church.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “staple”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.