【Strip】 , 【stripe】 , 【band】 , 【ribbon】 , 【fillet】 are comparable when they mean a relatively long and narrow piece or section.
【Strip】 and 【stripe】 both imply length and comparative narrowness and approximate uniformity of width. However 【strip】 commonly suggests separation from a larger piece and 【stripe】 stresses a contrast (as in color, texture, or pattern) between the section of a surface referred to and the sections bordering upon it.
If actual separation is not implied 【strip】 may be employed when the difference between the portion of surface referred to and its neighboring portions is a matter of use, ownership, or physical character.
However 【stripe】 may be used in such cases in preference to 【strip】 when the division is made evident by a contrast in appearance.
【Band】 (see also BOND 1 ) may mean either a 【strip】 or 【stripe】 but often also connotes either an encircling with or without a suggestion of confining or uniting or a horizontal position rather than the vertical position so often connoted by 【stripe】 .
【Ribbon】 designates concretely a length of narrow woven material with selvage edges, usually one that is fine and firm in texture and is used for ornamental bands, ties, and bows. In extended use 【ribbon】 is often used in place of 【strip】 when the strips are very long, very narrow, and very thin and when the material is flexible enough to appear like 【ribbon】 or to be handled like 【ribbon】 .
【Fillet】 , which basically denotes a narrow 【strip】 of ornamental material (as a 【band】 of 【ribbon】 for restraining the hair or a narrow molding or beading that forms the inner part of a picture frame), is often extended to various things that have no inherent ornamental quality and are otherwise describable as strips, ribbons, or bands (as a metal 【strip】 or 【ribbon】 from which coins are punched, a very thin molding, one of certain bands of white matter in the brain, or a long narrow piece of meat or fish without bone).
