Filament Explained

The word filament, which is descended from Latin filum meaning "thread", is used in English for a variety of thread-like structures, including:

Astronomy

• Galaxy filament, the largest known cosmic structures in the universe
• Solar filament, a solar prominence seen against the disc of the sun

Biology

• Myofilament, filaments of myofibrils constructed from proteins
• Protein filament, a long chain of protein subunits, such as those found in hair or muscle
• Part of a stamen, the male part of a flower
• Hypha, a thread-like cell in fungi and Actinobacteria
• Filamentation, an elongation of individual bacterial cells

Textiles

• Filament fiber, fiber that comes in a continuous long length
• Filament yarn, as opposed to spun yarn

Media

• Filament (magazine), a female-oriented erotica magazine
• 2002 movie by Jinsei Tsuji
• Filament (band), a musical group from Japan
• Filament Games, a Wisconsin-based educational video game developer
• Filament Productions, a production design and touring video company

Physics and engineering

• Electrical filament, of incandescent light bulb
• Heater filament, of a vacuum tube
• Current filament, an inhomogeneity in current flow
• Filament propagation, diffractionless propagation of a light beam
• 3D printing filament, printer raw material

See also

• Monofilament (disambiguation)