filament

[ˈfɪləmənt]

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A filament is a thin thread or wire that's often used in things like light bulbs and electronic devices.

You've probably seen those little strings inside old-fashioned light bulbs - they're filaments. They work by heating up when electricity passes through them, making them glow. Some devices, like LED lights, use really thin filaments to send signals. In 3D printing, a filament is the material that's melted and turned into the object being created. It can be made of lots of different materials, like plastic or metal.

How common is "filament"?

Word filament is considered rare in modern English.
It has a balanced usage among all categories: speech, fiction, newspapers and academic texts.

Definitions

noun

A fine thread or wire.
Such a wire, as can be heated until it glows, in an incandescent light bulb or a thermionic valve.
A massive, thread-like structure, such as those gaseous ones which extend outward from the surface of the sun, or such as those (much larger) ones which form the boundaries between large voids in the universe.
Example: galaxy filament
The stalk of a flower stamen, supporting the anther.
A continuous object, limited in length only by its spool, and not cut to length.

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filament

How common is "filament"?

noun

Real examples of "filament" in context

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