Linen and cotton are different plant fibres woven into fabric. Linen comes from the flax plant and is a strong, cool material often chosen for summer clothing, while cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant. A quick way to remember it: linen comes from a stalk (flax), cotton comes from a seed pod.
The core difference
Linen is woven from flax fibres, while cotton is a soft fibre grown around cotton plant seeds.
- linen — a strong, cool fabric woven from flax fibres: She wore a crisp linen shirt in the summer heat.
- cotton — a soft white fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, used for thread and fabric: The shirt is made from 100% cotton.
How to tell them apart
The clearest distinction is the plant each fabric comes from: linen is woven from the fibres of the flax plant, while cotton is spun from the soft fibre that grows around cotton plant seeds. Linen also doubles as a general word for household textiles such as sheets, tablecloths, and towels, whether or not they are actually made of linen fabric, and as an adjective it can describe the pale beige colour associated with the cloth.
Cotton has its own extra sense too: informally, to cotton to something means to take a liking to it, and to cotton on means to start to understand something.
