Rug Glossary

The words you meet on rug listings and in our showrooms, explained in plain English. Every listing on this site uses these terms the same way.

Hand-knotted

Each tuft of pile is a separate knot tied by hand around two warp threads, row by row, then cut. A room-size rug holds hundreds of thousands of knots and takes months to weave. The pattern shows clearly on the back.

Hand-tufted

Wool is punched through a cotton backing cloth with a hand tool, then held in place with latex glue and a second cloth back. Faster and cheaper to make than hand-knotted, and it does not last as long.

Flatweave

A rug woven without pile, with the colored weft threads forming the pattern. Kilims and soumaks are flatweaves. They are thin, light and often reversible.

Kilim

A flatweave made by passing colored weft threads back and forth through the warp, leaving small slits where two colors meet. Woven across Afghanistan, Turkey, Persia and the Caucasus.

Soumak

A flatweave in which the weft is wrapped around the warp threads, giving a herringbone texture on the front and loose yarn ends on the back. Stronger than a kilim.

Pile

The soft surface of a knotted rug: the cut ends of the knots. Pile height is how tall that surface stands.

Warp

The threads that run the length of the rug, stretched on the loom before weaving starts. The fringe is the ends of the warp.

Weft

The threads woven across the warp from side to side, between each row of knots, to hold them in place.

Knot density (KPSI)

Knots per square inch. More knots allow finer detail and take longer to weave, but density alone does not decide quality: wool, dyes and design matter as much.

Fringe

The ends of the warp threads at each end of a handmade rug. On a machine-made rug the fringe is often sewn on.

Selvedge

The bound long edges of a rug, wrapped with wool to protect them. Also called the overcast.

Field

The main central area of the design, inside the borders.

Medallion

A large central motif in the field, often with corner pieces echoing it.

Gul

The repeating octagonal emblem of Turkmen rugs. Each tribe wove its own gul, so it often tells where a rug comes from.

Herati

An all-over pattern of a rosette framed by curling leaves, named after Herat. One of the most common Persian and Afghan field patterns.

Abrash

Gentle shifts of shade across a rug, caused by wool dyed in small batches. A sign of handmade work, not a flaw.

Vegetable dyes

Dyes made from plants and insects, such as madder root for red and indigo for blue. They age softly and give a natural abrash.

Hand-spun wool

Wool spun into yarn by hand. Slightly uneven, it gives the pile depth and a soft shine.

Chobi (Ziegler)

An Afghan rug in hand-spun wool and vegetable dyes, washed for a soft, muted look in ivory, beige, rust and faded blue.

Kazak

Bold geometric rugs in the style of the Caucasus, with large medallions and thick pile. Today many are woven in Afghanistan.

Baluch

Tribal rugs woven by Baluch groups in western Afghanistan and eastern Persia, in dark reds, browns and blues, often small.

Vintage

In the rug trade, about 20 to 99 years old. Every listing states the age we can stand behind.

Antique

100 years old or more.

On approval

Taking a rug home from our showroom to see it in your own room before you decide to buy it.

Nominal size

The general size a rug is sold as, such as 8x10. The measured size on each listing is the exact size, which for a handmade rug can run a few inches either way.

Not sure what a word on a listing means? Chat with us and we explain it with the rug in front of us.