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Plural of fiber

Mycat19
Hi guys! I was reading a table about constituents of grain seeds and a column name says "Fibres"; inmediately, my brain sent me a message that there was a mistake, but there is no mistake. Just realized the term fiber has two slightly speelling differences according to the country in the context of nutrition Word in USA : Fiber Plural: fibers Word in UK: Fibre Plural: fibres Is it the same with the other context ? because also a fiber is "a thread or filament from which a vegetable tissue, mineral substance, or textile is formed", in this case would be the same as the first case to form the plural?

3 comments

Environmental-Day517•
Yes, the plural of fiber/fibre is fibers/fibres. It doesn’t matter whether you’re referring to the thread/filament or the dietary material.
Bunnytob•
Yeah, it's the same in the other context. It's worth noting (if you didn't know already) that British -re to American -er is a very common systematic spelling change - although it doesn't always work in the other direction (e.g. sister, cheer, inter-, or any time -er is applied as a suffix e.g. larger, freezer).
EricClawson48017•
Hi OP - I get what you are saying / asking. You can have 10 mg of fiber and 1 mg of fiber. The word fiber isn't pluralized based on changes of its amount when it comes dietary fiber because the plural transfers to the word milligrams. So I get why you were confused. Obviously fiber when it comes to nutrition changes in amounts. But you rarely see the word fiber pluralized when it comes dietary fiber for how often you see the word. Although technically if you were discussing different types of dietary fibers you could see it in plural form. Similarly fats is acceptable pluralization but would tended be used in the same way. You would say there are 10 grams of fat. You could also say that meat has a lot of fat. But you could also say there are good fats and bad fats.