A unit of matter characterized by a high ratio of length-to-width. Material which can be spun into yarn or made into fabric by interlacing (weaving), interlooping (knitting), or interlocking (bonding). Discontinuous fibers are referred to as “staple fibers” with lengths designated in inches or millimeters. Typical textile fibers have length-to-width ratios in the order of 1000 to 1, are longer than one inch, have diameters greater than 10 microns, and mass-per-unit-length (linear density) values in the order of one gram per thousand meters.