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PlainSpell

fabric

fab·ric/ˈfæb.ɹɪk/noun, verb

fabric is spelled F-A-B-R-I-C: 6 letters and 2 syllables (fab·ric). It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fabric means “The physical material of a building” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fabric is fabrics.

How many letters and syllables are in fabric?

Letters6: F-A-B-R-I-C
Syllables2: fab·ric
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is fabric?

Fabric appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce fabric?

  • /ˈfæb.ɹɪk/

Fabric has 2 syllables, split fab·ric in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fabric.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fabric

  • fabrics plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fabricking participle, present
  • fabricked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fabric mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    archaicAn edifice or building.

  2. 2

    archaicThe act of constructing, construction, fabrication.

  3. 3

    archaicThe structure of anything, the manner in which the parts of a thing are united; workmanship, texture, make.

    cloth of a beautiful fabric

  4. 4

    The physical material of a building.

    This church dates back to the 11th century, though the great majority of its fabric is fifteenth century or later.

  5. 5

    The framework underlying a structure.

    the fabric of our lives

  6. 6

    A material made of fibers; especially, a woven one.

    Near-synonym: cloth (not always differentiated)

  7. 7

    The texture of a cloth.

  8. 8

    The appearance of crystalline grains in a rock.

verb

  1. 1

    To cover with fabric.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fabric in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchstructure (edifice, building), tissu (figurative framework underlying a structure), textile (material made of fibers)
GermanGebäude, Bauwerk (edifice, building), Konstruktion, Errichtung (act of constructing), Muster, Textur (structure of anything)
Portugueseestrutura, rede (figurative framework underlying a structure), pano, tecido (material made of fibers), tato (texture of a cloth)
Spanishentramado (figurative framework underlying a structure), tela, tejido, género (material made of fibers)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fabric come from?

Borrowed from French fabrique, from Latin fabrica (“a workshop, art, trade, product of art, structure, fabric”), from faber (“artisan, workman”). Doublet of fabrica, borrowed from Latin, and forge, borrowed from Old French.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after fabric