yarn

The word “yarn” means spun fibre thread used for knitting, weaving, or making rope. In plain terms, either thread for knitting/weaving, or an entertaining (and often stretched) story.

“Yarn” is pronounced yahn (/jɑɹn/ in IPA).

Here is “yarn” used in a sentence: “She bought several skeins of wool yarn to knit a scarf.”

Depending on how it is used, “yarn” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “yarn” comes from Old English. From Old English ġearn ("spun wool"), an ancient Germanic word for spun fibre; the "tall tale" sense grew out of sailors literally spinning yarn while telling stories on long voyages.

“Yarn” is an uncommon word in modern English.

“Yarn” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: spun fibre thread used for knitting, weaving, or making rope.

"Yarn" is spun fibre used for knitting, weaving, or making rope, and is generally thicker and more loosely twisted than "thread," which is typically fine strands used for sewing. Yarn's bulk makes it suited to crafts like knitting, while thread is used to join fabric.

To "spin a yarn" means to tell a long, often exaggerated or unlikely story, drawing on the noun sense of "yarn" as a tall tale. The phrase can also be expressed as a verb, "to yarn," meaning to tell such a story.

No, the two uses of "yarn" are distinct senses of the same word: one refers to spun fibre thread for crafts like knitting and weaving, and the other refers to a long, exaggerated story. Context usually makes clear which meaning is intended.