Ribbons: meaning, definitions and examples

Use for a long, narrow piece of material or land, often having a functional and sometimes industrial connotation.

• They cut the wood into long strips
• There is a strip of land between the two properties

Use for a narrow piece of material, usually stretchy, that can wrap around an object for practical purposes such as holding things together or wearing around the wrist.

• He wore a fitness band to track his activity
• The bundle of papers was secured with a rubber band

Use for adhesive material used to stick things together, can be clear for wrapping or colored for labeling or decorating. It can also refer to magnetic storage media.

• She used some transparent tape to wrap the gift
• The old music player had cassette tapes for playing songs

Used mostly in software interfaces to describe a horizontal row of tabs and tool groups that organize functions in a visually attractive way.

• 'The new word processor uses ribbons for better accessibility of features
• ' 'You can find most formatting options in the ribbons at the top of the screen
• '

Typically used to reference a horizontal or vertical bar in software containing icons or buttons that execute commands when clicked.

• 'Click on the paintbrush icon in the toolbar to start drawing
• ' 'You can customize which tools are shown in your toolbar
• '

Common in software programs to describe a horizontal bar, usually at the top of a window, that lists menus like File, Edit, View, etc.

• 'Open the File menu from the menu bar to save your document
• ' 'The menu bar provides easy access to all the main functions
• '