Meaning & use
terry cloth
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
A soft cotton fabric woven with small loops that soak up water well, used for towels and bathrobes.
Grammar: No plural and no 'a' before it when it means the material: made of terry cloth, not made of a terry cloth.
Patterns
- made of terry cloth
- a terry cloth towel
- terry cloth robe
These towels are made of thick terry cloth that dries you quickly.
She put on a white terry cloth robe after her shower.
The hotel uses plain terry cloth, not the fancy patterned kind.
Common combinations
- terry cloth towel
- He grabbed a terry cloth towel from the rack.
- terry cloth robe
- The spa gives every guest a soft terry cloth robe.
- made of terry cloth
- The washcloths are made of terry cloth, so they last for years.
- terry cloth shorts
- In summer he lives in terry cloth shorts around the house.
- a piece of terry cloth
- She cut a piece of terry cloth to line the basket.
Synonyms and how they differ
- toweling
- The usual British word for the same absorbent fabric; in American English 'terry cloth' is more common.
- towel fabric
- A plain descriptive phrase rather than a fixed term; use it if your reader may not know 'terry cloth'.
Word family
Commonly confused: terry cloth or velvet? terry cloth or flannel?
terry cloth vs velvet
Velvet is a smooth, dense fabric with a soft pile, not the looped, water-absorbing surface of terry cloth.
terry cloth vs flannel
Flannel is a brushed or woven fabric, often warm and fuzzy, but it does not have terry cloth's loops or drying power.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'terry cloth' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Terry cloth' is an uncountable material noun, so it works after 'made of' with no article. Option A wrongly treats it as a countable object, C uses a plural for a single fabric, and D uses a plural verb with an uncountable noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “terry cloth”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.