Learn English – What do you call these “rolls” on old clothes

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Below is the picture of what I mean. So, I wanna know the name of these "rolls", what are they called? Pellets? Rolls?

As you can see, some people use razors or fabric shavers to get rid of them.

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Best Answer

Those are commonly known as pills, or bobbles in the UK, though other terms may be in use depending on location. From Wikipedia:

A pill, colloquially known as a bobble, fuzzball, or lint ball is a small ball of fibers that forms on a piece of cloth. 'Pill' is also a verb for the formation of such balls.

As the Wikipedia article mentions, pill is also the verb form for this, and the form pilling is sometimes used for multiple pills together, as in:

This sweater pills like crazy! I started out picking off individual pills, but I really need a shaver thing to get rid of all the pilling.