coir

IPA/ˈkɔɪə(r)/
IPA/ˈkɔɪər/

coir — noun

1. the rough, stringy material taken from the outer shell of a coconut, used to mak

1.nounC2
Definition

the rough, stringy material taken from the outer shell of a coconut, used to make ropes, doormats, and brushes, or mixed into soil to help plants grow.

Example

Padma scrubbed the muddy boots clean on a thick coir doormat by the front door.

common collocation: coir doormat

The gardener mixed coir into the dry soil before planting the young tomato seedlings.

typical use: coir in compost / soil

Common collocations
  • coir doormat
  • coir rope
  • coir matting
  • coir rug
  • coir compost
Synonyms
  • coconut fibre

    plain descriptive term; more transparent than 'coir' for general readers.

  • coco fibre

    common in gardening shops, especially on product labels.

Grammar Patterns

uncountable noun

Usage Note

Almost always uncountable; do not say 'a coir' or 'coirs'. Subject is rarely a person — typically the material itself, or it appears in compounds (coir doormat, coir rope, coir matting).

Common Mistakes

She bought two coirs for the garden.
She bought two bags of coir for the garden.
coir is uncountable; use a measure word like 'bag' or 'roll'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Coir, coconut fibre, and coco peat all come from the coconut, but they refer to slightly different products. Coir is the long, springy fibre stripped from the husk and is used for ropes, doormats, and brushes. Coconut fibre is a plain English label for the same material and appears more often in everyday speech and on product packaging. Coco peat (also called coir pith) is the finer, soil-like dust left behind after the long fibres are removed; gardeners use it to lighten potting mixes. Jute, by contrast, is not from a coconut at all — it is a soft plant fibre from the jute plant, used for sacks and cheap rope. So a doormat is usually coir, a sack is usually jute, and a bag of fluffy brown growing medium is usually coco peat.

coir ↗coconut fibrecoco peatjute ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • coir doormat
  • coir mat
  • coir rope
  • coir matting
  • coir rug
  • coir compost
  • coir pith

Phrases

  • a roll of coir matting
  • a bag of coir

Prepositions

  • made from coir
  • mixed with coir

Etymology

MalayalamPortugueseEnglish

Coir came into English in the 1500s from the Malayalam word 'kayar', meaning cord or rope. Malayalam is spoken on the south-west coast of India, where coconut growing has long been a major industry and where ropes and mats made from the husks were already a well-known export. Portuguese and Dutch traders carried both the product and its name to Europe, and English borrowed the word from them.