filament.

1. A slender thread or threadlike strand, natural or manufactured.

2. A slender conducting element heated by current to emit light in an incandescent lamp.

3. A solar prominence appearing as a dark elongated feature when seen against the solar disk.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a fine filament
• filaments of material

On the page

A fine filament joined the two surfaces across the gap.

She followed the filament until it vanished beneath the casing.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular filament; plural filaments. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.