twill

/twɪl/

twill noun: a pattern, characterised by diagonal ridges, created by the regular interlacing of threads of the warp and weft during weaving.

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Noun

twill (countable and uncountable, plural twills)

A pattern, characterised by diagonal ridges, created by the regular interlacing of threads of the warp and weft during weaving.
- The twill weave is always given a direction; a right-hand twill is one in which the twill line runs from bottom left to top right and a left-hand twill is one in which the twill line runs from bottom right to top left. The angle of the twill is determined by the amount of shift in the points of...1973, P. R. Lord, M. H. Mohamed, Weaving: Conversion of Yarn to Fabric, 2nd edition, page 167
- Industrial uses of twill fabrics are mainly restricted to simple twills and only simple twills are described here. Broken twills, waved twills, herringbone twills and elongated twills are extensively used for suiting and dress fabrics.2000, Walter S. Sondhelm, “4: Technical fabric structures - 1. Woven fabrics”, in A. Richard Horrocks, Subhash C. Anand, editors, Handbook of Technical Textiles, page 68
A cloth or portion of cloth woven in such a pattern.
- Plain cotton twills, such as canvas, sailcloth, and denim, in mediumweight fabrics, can be a good choice for informal rooms that receive considerable wear and tear, such as rec rooms, dens, playrooms, or children's bedrooms.2006, Mark Montano, Carly Sommerstein, Window Treatments and Slipcovers For Dummies, page 33

Verb

twill (third-person singular simple present twills, present participle twilling, simple past and past participle twilled)

(transitive) To weave (cloth, etc.) so as to produce the appearance of diagonal lines or ribs on the surface.

twill meaning in Tamil

twill in Tamil

டுவில்

Examples of twill in a sentence

The angle of the twill is determined by the amount of shift in the points of interlacing.1973, P. R. Lord, M. H. Mohamed, Weaving: Conversion of Yarn to Fabric, 2nd edition, page 167:
Herringbone fabrics are a twill variation having the twill line reversed at regular intervals.2002, Dianne Rose Jackman, Mary K. Dixon, Jill Condra, The Guide to Textiles for Interiors, page 98:

All 19 example sentences with twill

Forms of twill

Noun
plural	twills
alternative form	tweel
Verb
third-person singular present	twills
present participle	twilling
past participle	twilled
past	twilled

Plural of twill: twills

Origin of twill

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English twyll, twylle, from Old English twilīċ (“two-threaded”), a partial calque of Latin bilix, bilic-, from bis (“twice”) + licium (“thread”).

Words formed from twill

Phrases with twill

twill tapes

Words that rhyme with twill

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about twill

What does twill mean?: Twill means a pattern, characterised by diagonal ridges, created by the regular interlacing of threads of the warp and weft during weaving.
What is twill in Tamil?: Twill in Tamil is டுவில். See Twill meaning in Tamil.
How do you use twill in a sentence?: The angle of the twill is determined by the amount of shift in the points of interlacing.
What part of speech is twill?: Twill can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce twill?: Twill is pronounced /twɪl/.
What is the plural of twill?: The plural of twill is twills.

Words near twill in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: twill (page history and authors); twill (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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