A tapestry is a large piece of heavy fabric with pictures or designs woven directly into it, not painted or printed on top. Think of it like a massive, detailed cloth picture created thread by thread on a special loom. Medieval castles hung tapestries on their stone walls for decoration and insulation, since the thick fabric helped keep rooms warmer.

Creating a tapestry takes extraordinary patience and skill. Weavers work from the back of the fabric, carefully threading different colored yarns to build up the image. A single large tapestry might take years to complete. The famous Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, stretches nearly 230 feet long and contains over 600 human figures, plus horses, ships, and buildings.

The word also describes anything complex and intricately woven together. You might hear someone say that America is a tapestry of different cultures, or that a novel weaves together a tapestry of interconnected stories. When used this way, tapestry suggests something rich and detailed, where many different threads combine to create a complete picture.