Word.ws English Dictionary

silesia

/saɪˈliːziə/US/saɪˈliʒə/

silesia noun: silesian textile made of flax or cotton.

Noun

silesia (countable and uncountable, plural silesias)

  1. Silesian textile made of flax or cotton.
    • "Say I can't dress a window, you thundering old Humbug," he said, and hurled the huckaback at his master. He followed this up by pitching first a blanket, then an armful of silesia, then a window support out of the window into the shop.1910, H G Wells, The History of Mr Polly, page 27

Proper noun capitalized: Silesia

Silesia

  1. A cultural region of Central Europe, now chiefly in Poland, with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany, from early modernity until 1945 predominantly German-speaking with Slavic-speaking minorities (and local majorities).

Forms of silesia

pluralsilesias

Origin of silesia

English silesia From Silesia.

Uncertain. Two theories are prominent: a relation to the Germanic Silingi tribe, whose name is attested in Ancient Greek Σιλίγγαι (Silíngai). Or, from Old Polish ślęg, śląg meaning "dampness, humidity, moisture." More at Ślęża and Silesia.

Words formed from silesia

Questions about silesia

What does silesia mean?
Silesia means silesian textile made of flax or cotton.
What part of speech is silesia?
Silesia can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce silesia?
Silesia is pronounced /saɪˈliːziə/ (UK).
What is the plural of silesia?
The plural of silesia is silesias.

Words near silesia in the dictionary

  1. Silerios
  2. Silers
  3. siles
  4. silesaurid
  5. silesaurids
  6. silesia
  7. Silesian
  8. Silesian German
  9. Silesian Voivodeship
  10. Silesianness
  11. Silesians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: silesia (page history and authors); Silesia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Silesia.wav.

Cite this entry: “silesia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/silesia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.