In general, a textile structure made directly from fibre rather than yarn. Fabrics are normally made from extruded continuous filaments or from fibre webs or batts strengthened by bonding using various techniques: these include adhesive bonding, mechanical interlocking by needling or fluid jet entanglement, thermal bonding and stitch bonding.
Note: Opinions vary as to the range of fabrics to be classified as nonwoven. The controversial areas are:
(1) wet-laid fabrics, containing wood pulp, in which the boundary with paper is not clear
(2) stitch-bonded fabrics, which contain some yarn for bonding purposes
(3) needled fabrics containing reinforcing fabric
see also knit, weave
Textile Resource (http://www.textile.org.uk)