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Fiber vs Plastic - What's the difference?

fiber | plastic |

As nouns the difference between fiber and plastic

is that fiber is (countable) a single elongated piece of a given material, roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibers to form thread while plastic is plastic.

As an adjective plastic is

plastic.

fiber

English

Alternative forms

* fibre (chiefly British)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (countable) A single elongated piece of a given material, roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibers to form thread.
  • The microscope showed a single blue fiber stuck to the sole of the shoe.
  • (uncountable) A material in the form of fibers.
  • The cloth is made from strange, somewhat rough fiber .
  • (textiles) A material whose length is at least 1000 times its width.
  • Please use polyester fiber for this shirt.
  • Dietary fiber.
  • ''Fresh vegetables are a good source of fiber
  • (figuratively) Moral strength and resolve.
  • The ordeal was a test of everyone's fiber .
  • (mathematics) The preimage of a given point in the range of a map.
  • ''Under this map, any two values in the fiber of a given point on the circle differ by 2π
  • (computing) A kind of lightweight thread of execution.
  • Derived terms

    {{der3, dietary fiber , fiber bundle , fiberboard , fibered , fiberglass , fiberize , fiber optics , fiberscope , fibril, fibrilar , fibrin, fibrinous , fibrinogen , fibrinolysin , fibroblast , fibrocyte , fibroid , fibroma , fibrosis , fibrositis , fibrous , fibrovascular , microfiber , moral fiber , natural fiber , synthetic fiber}}

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    plastic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * plastick (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.
  • (archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.
  • A synthetic, thermoplastic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics' are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine ' plastic , too.}}
  • Any similar synthetic material, not necessarily thermoplastic.
  • (colloquial) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
  • *
  • (slang) Fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.
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  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * bioplastic * plastic explosive

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.
  • * 1749 , (Henry Fielding), , Folio Society 1973, p. 103:
  • the rage betook itself at last to certain missile weapons; which, though from their plastic nature they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady.
  • * 1898 , Journal of Microscopy (page 256)
  • Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.
  • * 2012 , Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review , issue 399:
  • while the broad pattern of connections between brain regions is similar in every healthy human brain, their details – their number, size and strength – are thought to underpin our individuality, as synapses are ‘plastic ’, shaped by experience.
  • (dated) Creative, formative.
  • * Prior
  • the plastic hand of the Creator
  • * Alexander Pope
  • See plastic Nature working to his end.
  • (biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
  • Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
  • Made of plastic.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.}}
  • Inferior or not the real thing; ersatz.
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  • * {{quote-book, title=The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism
  • , page=, author=Matt James Mason, year=2008, passage=Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...}}
  • (slang) Fake, snobbish. Usually refers to a person.
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  • Synonyms

    * malleable, flexible, pliant * ersatz * fake

    Antonyms

    * elastic * genuine

    Derived terms

    * plastic beauty * plastician * plasticity * plasticizer * plasticine * plastic surgery * thermoplastic