filament

Plural: filaments

Noun

• A very fine thread or threadlike structure; a slender fiber.
• a very slender natural or synthetic fiber
• the stalk of a stamen
• a threadlike structure (as a chainlike series of cells)
• a thin wire (usually tungsten) that is heated white hot by the passage of an electric current
• 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.
• The stalk of a flower stamen, supporting the anther.
• A continuous object, limited in length only by its spool, and not cut to length.

Examples

• Connecting a single letter to a distant word felt like stretching a FILAMENT across the Words With Friends board.
• galaxy filament
• solar filament
• the Ursa Major Filament

Synonyms

fibril, filum, strand