# fluff

> English word · Noun · IPA /flʌf/ · frequency rank #22,380

## Definitions
1. Anything light, soft or fuzzy, especially fur, hair, feathers.
2. Anything inconsequential or superficial.
3. A lapse or mistake, especially a mistake in an actor's lines.
4. A cloth diaper.
5. Marshmallow creme.
6. A passive partner in a lesbian relationship.
7. A fart.
8. Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.
9. A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time.
10. Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself.

## Etymology
From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”); see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

## Easily confused with
- **flux** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-flux)
- **fluid** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-fluid)
- **flush** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-flush)
- **flute** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-flute)
- **flung** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-flung)
- **fluke** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-fluke)
- **flume** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-flume)
- **fluffy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fluff-vs-fluffy)
- **flu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flu-vs-fluff)
- **flue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/flue-vs-fluff)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ffluff`, `flfuf`, `flluff`, `fluf`, `fulff`, `lfuff`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/fluff