A textile (often called cloth or fabric) is a flexible artificial material made up of a network of natural or artificial fibers (thread or yarn) formed by weaving or knitting (textiles), or pressed into felt. The words fabric and material are commonly used in the textile assembly trades such as tailoring and dressmaking, as synonyms for cloth. However, they are words with much more general meanings. The term is also used to describe a particular type of hardback bookbinding, originally meaning that the surface of the cover was made using "cloth".