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Part of Visual Dictionary Project
Extremely light, delicate, and filmy
Early morning, a spiderweb catches the light—impossibly thin, almost invisible, yet strong enough to trap insects. This is gossamer: something extremely light, delicate, and filmy.
The word originally meant the fine threads spiders spin on autumn mornings. Now it describes anything with that same fragile, barely-there quality.
Visual examples of delicate, filmy lightness

Gossamer originally meant spider silk—incredibly fine yet surprisingly strong.

Dragonfly wings are gossamer—so thin that light passes right through them.

Morning mist hangs like gossamer—visible one moment, vanished the next.

Gossamer fabric is so light it floats on air, almost transparent.
Test your understanding of gossamer in context
Which insect part is most likely described as gossamer?