String vs. Twine: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
String is a thin cord of twisted fibers, used for tying, while twine is a stronger, thicker twist of two or more strands.
Key Differences
String is often made from a variety of materials like cotton, nylon, or polyester, making it versatile for different uses. Twine, on the other hand, is typically composed of natural fibers like hemp or jute, lending it greater strength and durability.
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String is commonly used for tasks requiring less strength, such as gift wrapping or crafts. Twine, with its thicker and stronger nature, is suited for heavier duties like gardening, packaging, or binding.
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The physical appearance of string is generally finer and more delicate, making it ideal for intricate work. Twine, being thicker and more robust, is less flexible but offers more resilience for demanding tasks.
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In industrial settings, string is often used in sewing, tagging, or small product bundling. Twine finds its place in larger scale operations like agriculture, shipping, and heavy packaging due to its strength and reliability.
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Historically, string has been a part of daily life for centuries, used in various domestic tasks. Twine, with its agricultural roots, has been integral in farming and trade, symbolizing strength and utility.
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Comparison Chart
Historical Significance
Common in domestic and craft uses
Associated with agriculture
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String and Twine Definitions
String
A series of things connected or following in succession.
A string of pearls adorned her neck.
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Twine
A strong thread or string composed of two or more strands twisted together.
He used twine to tie the parcel.
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String
A set of characters in computing.
The program couldn't read the string of text.
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String
The string instruments in an orchestra.
The string section played beautifully.
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Twine
To form by twisting, intertwining, or interlacing
Twined the cord from plant fibers.
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String
Material made of drawn-out, twisted fiber, used for fastening, tying, or lacing.
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Twine
To wind, coil, or wrap around something
"She was twining a wisp of hair very slowly around her fingers" (Anne Tyler).
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String
A cord stretched on an instrument and struck, plucked, or bowed to produce tones.
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Twine
To become twisted, interlaced, or interwoven
The branches of one tree twined with those of another.
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String
Strings The section of a band or orchestra composed of stringed instruments, especially violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.
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Twine
To go in a winding course; twist about
A stream twining through the forest.
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String
Strings Stringed instruments or their players considered as a group.
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String
Something resembling a string or appearing as a long, thin line
Limp strings of hair.
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Twine
A strong string or cord made of two or more threads twisted together.
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String
(Physics) One of the extremely minute objects that form the basis of string theory.
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String
A set of objects threaded together or attached on a string
A string of beads.
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Twine
A strong thread composed of two or three smaller threads or strands twisted together, and used for various purposes, as for binding small parcels, making nets, and the like; a small cord or string.
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String
A series of similar or related acts, events, or items
A string of victories.
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String
A set of animals, especially racehorses, belonging to a single owner; a stable.
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Twine
(transitive) To wind, as one thread around another, or as any flexible substance around another body.
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String
A scattered group of businesses under a single ownership or management
A string of boutiques.
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String
A group of players ranked according to ability within a team
He made the second string.
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Twine
(intransitive) To mutually twist together; to become mutually involved; to intertwine.
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Twine
(intransitive) To ascend in spiral lines about a support; to climb spirally.
Many plants twine.
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String
(Informal) A limiting or hidden condition. Often used in the plural
A gift with no strings attached.
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String
To fit or furnish with strings or a string
String a guitar.
String a tennis racket.
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Twine
A strong thread composed of two or three smaller threads or strands twisted together, and used for various purposes, as for binding small parcels, making nets, and the like; a small cord or string.
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Twine
To twist together; to form by twisting or winding of threads; to wreathe; as, fine twined linen.
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String
To fasten, tie, or hang with a string or strings
String a hammock between trees.
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Twine
To wind, as one thread around another, or as any flexible substance around another body.
Let me twineMine arms about that body.
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Twine
To wind about; to embrace; to entwine.
Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine.
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String
To extend or progress in a string, line, or succession
"We followed the others stringing through the narrow paved paths" (Susan Richards Shreve).
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String
(countable) A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.
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Twine
To wind; to bend; to make turns; to meander.
As rivers, though they bend and twine,Still to the sea their course incline.
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String
(musical instrument) A segment of wire (typically made of plastic or metal) or other material used as vibrating element on a musical instrument.
A violinstring
A bowstring
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Twine
To ascend in spiral lines about a support; to climb spirally; as, many plants twine.
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String
(sports) A length of nylon or other material on the head of a racquet.
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String
A thread or cord on which a number of objects or parts are strung or arranged in close and orderly succession; hence, a line or series of things arranged on a thread, or as if so arranged.
A string of shells or beads
A string of sausages
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Twine
Spin or twist together so as to form a cord;
Intertwine the ribbons
Twine the threads into a rope
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String
(countable) A cohesive substance taking the form of a string.
The string of spittle dangling from his chin was most unattractive
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Twine
Wrap or coil around;
Roll your hair around your finger
Twine the thread around the spool
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String
(countable) The members of a sports team or squad regarded as most likely to achieve success. (Perhaps metaphorical as the "strings" that hold the squad together.) Often first string, second string etc.
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String
(countable) In various games and competitions, a certain number of turns at play, of rounds, etc.
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String
(collective) A drove of horses, or a group of racehorses kept by one owner or at one stable.
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String
An ordered sequence of text characters stored consecutively in memory and capable of being processed as a single entity.
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Twine
A complex intertwining.
The story was a twine of mysteries and adventures.
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String
The stringed instruments as a section of an orchestra, especially those played by a bow, or the persons playing those instruments.
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String
The conditions and limitations in a contract collectively.
No strings attached
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String
The main object of study in string theory, a branch of theoretical physics.
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String
(billiards) Part of the game of billiards, where the order of the play is determined by testing who can get a ball closest to the bottom rail by shooting it onto the end rail.
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String
The line from behind and over which the cue ball must be played after being out of play, as by being pocketed or knocked off the table; also called the string line.
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String
A strip, as of leather, by which the covers of a book are held together.
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String
(shipbuilding) An inside range of ceiling planks, corresponding to the sheer strake on the outside and bolted to it.
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String
(botany) The tough fibrous substance that unites the valves of the pericarp of leguminous plants.
The strings of beans
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String
(oil drilling) A column of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid (via the mud pumps) and torque (via the kelly drive or top drive) to the drill bit.
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String
(transitive) To put (items) on a string.
You can string these beads on to this cord to make a colorful necklace.
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String
(transitive) To put strings on (something).
It is difficult to string a tennis racket properly.
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String
(intransitive) To form into a string or strings, as a substance which is stretched, or people who are moving along, etc.
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String
To drive the ball against the end of the table and back, in order to determine which player is to open the game.
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String
(birdwatching) To deliberately state that a certain bird is present when it is not; to knowingly mislead other birders about the occurrence of a bird, especially a rarity; to misidentify a common bird as a rare species.
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String
A small cord, a line, a twine, or a slender strip of leather, or other substance, used for binding together, fastening, or tying things; a cord, larger than a thread and smaller than a rope; as, a shoe string; a bonnet string; a silken string.
Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string.
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String
A thread or cord on which a number of objects or parts are strung or arranged in close and orderly succession; hence, a line or series of things arranged on a thread, or as if so arranged; a succession; a concatenation; a chain; as, a string of shells or beads; a string of dried apples; a string of houses; a string of arguments.
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String
A strip, as of leather, by which the covers of a book are held together.
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Oct 19, 2023
String
The cord of a musical instrument, as of a piano, harp, or violin; specifically (pl.), the stringed instruments of an orchestra, in distinction from the wind instruments; as, the strings took up the theme.
Me softer airs befit, and softer stringsOf lute, or viol still.
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String
A fiber, as of a plant; a little, fibrous root.
Duckweed putteth forth a little string into the water, from the bottom.
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String
A nerve or tendon of an animal body.
The string of his tongue was loosed.
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String
An inside range of ceiling planks, corresponding to the sheer strake on the outside and bolted to it.
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String
The tough fibrous substance that unites the valves of the pericap of leguminous plants, and which is readily pulled off; as, the strings of beans.
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Oct 19, 2023
String
In various indoor games, a score or tally, sometimes, as in American billiard games, marked by buttons threaded on a string or wire.
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String
The line from behind and over which the cue ball must be played after being out of play as by being pocketed or knocked off the table; - called also string line.
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String
A sequence of similar objects or events sufficiently close in time or space to be perceived as a group; a string of accidents; a string of restaurants on a highway.
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String
A one-dimensional string-like mathematical object used as a means of representing the properties of fundamental particles in string theory, one theory of particle physics; such hypothetical objects are one-dimensional and very small (10-33 cm) but exist in more than four spatial dimensions, and have various modes of vibration. Considering particles as strings avoids some of the problems of treating particles as points, and allows a unified treatment of gravity along with the other three forces (electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force) in a manner consistent with quantum mechanics. See also string theory.
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String
To furnish with strings; as, to string a violin.
Has not wise nature strung the legs and feetWith firmest nerves, designed to walk the street?
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String
To put in tune the strings of, as a stringed instrument, in order to play upon it.
For here the Muse so oft her harp has strung,That not a mountain rears its head unsung.
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String
To make tense; to strengthen.
Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood.
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String
To hoax; josh; jolly; often used with along; as, we strung him along all day until he realized we were kidding.
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String
To form into a string or strings, as a substance which is stretched, or people who are moving along, etc.
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String
Stringed instruments that are played with a bow;
The strings played superlatively well
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String
A tightly stretched cord of wire or gut, which makes sound when plucked, struck, or bowed
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String
A sequentially ordered set of things or events or ideas in which each successive member is related to the preceding;
A string of islands
Train of mourners
A train of thought
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String
A tie consisting of a cord that goes through a seam around an opening;
He pulled the drawstring and closed the bag
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String
A necklace made by a stringing objects together;
A string of beads
A strand of pearls
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String
Thread on or as if on a string;
String pearls on a string
The child drew glass beads on a string
Thread dried cranberries
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String
Add as if on a string;
String these ideas together
String up these songs and you'll have a musical
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String
A thin cord of flexible material.
She tied the package with a piece of string.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
Is twine environmentally friendly?
Usually, as it's often made from natural fibers.
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Can string be used for gardening?
Yes, but it's less durable compared to twine.
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What is twine used for?
Often for heavy-duty applications like gardening or packaging.
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How do you cut twine?
With scissors or a sharp knife, due to its thickness.
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Is twine biodegradable?
Natural fiber twine is, but synthetic twine may not be.
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What is string used for?
Typically for light-duty tasks like crafts or tying small items.
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What types of string are there?
Cotton, nylon, and polyester are common types.
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What's the difference in cost?
Twine is often more expensive due to its strength.
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Can string be used in cooking?
Yes, especially cotton string for trussing meat.
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Is twine stronger than string?
Generally, yes, due to its thicker composition.
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Can string be recycled?
Depends on the material; synthetic types are less likely to be.
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Can string be used for heavy lifting?
No, it's not strong enough for heavy loads.
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How is string made?
By twisting or spinning fibers into a thin, flexible cord.
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How is twine made?
Similar to string, but with a focus on strength and thickness.
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Are string and twine safe for pets?
Caution is needed as they can be choking hazards.
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Are there color variations in string and twine?
Yes, both come in various colors.
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Can both be used in crafts?
Yes, both are popular in different crafting applications.
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Is twine suitable for delicate tasks?
It can be too thick for very intricate work.
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How do you store string and twine?
Keep them dry and away from direct sunlight.
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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