A seam is the line where two pieces of material are sewn or joined together. Run your finger along the side of your shirt and you'll feel where two pieces of fabric meet: that's a seam. Seams hold your clothes together, appearing at the shoulders, sides, and sleeves of almost everything you wear.

The word also applies beyond clothing. A baseball has raised seams where the leather pieces are stitched together (pitchers grip these seams to make the ball curve). Metalworkers create seams when welding two sheets of metal. Even the earth has seams: geologists talk about coal seams, which are layers of coal sandwiched between other types of rock.

When something is bursting at the seams, it's so full that it might split apart where the pieces join. A backpack stuffed with too many books might be bursting at the seams. A popular restaurant might be packed with customers, bursting at the seams with diners.

The phrase seamless describes something so smooth and well-made that you can't see where the parts connect. A seamless transition between two songs means you barely notice when one ends and the next begins. Skilled craftspeople take pride in creating seamless work, where the joints and connections become invisible.