Wool

"Wool was added to Minecraft a looooOOOong time ago - in June 2009 during the game's "Classic" development phase. It was originally called cloth and came in sixteen different colours that aren't quite the same colours we have today. Knowing that wool was originally cloth helps to explain why you use it to make paintings - I don't know anyone who paints on wool in the real world. Leather armour was also originally made using cloth and called cloth armour."

- Duncan Geere

Wool is a block derived from sheep that can be dyed in any of the 16 different colors, which are white, orange, magenta, light blue, yellow, lime green, pink, gray, light gray, cyan, purple, blue, brown, green, red, and black.

Obtaining
Wool can be broken using any tool, but shears are the fastest tool to use.

Sheep
1 to 3 wool is harvested by shears on an adult sheep. If unshorn, sheep will drop 1 wool upon death. The wool dropped will be the same color as the sheep's wool. The drop rates are not affected by the Fortune or Looting enchantments.

White, light gray, gray, black, brown, and pink wool can be found naturally on sheep. The rest of the colors require dyeing sheep.

Natural generation


Black wool can also be found naturally in villages as part of a streetlight-like structure where they lie on top of three fence posts, surrounded by 4 torches. All wool colors except for magenta, pink, and purple generate naturally as part of structures within woodland mansions.

White and yellow wool generate in shepherd houses, fletcher houses and meeting points in plains villages.

White wool generate as woolen tents in pillager outposts.

White, brown, gray, light gray, and black wool can be found in village shepherd chests.

Trading
Shepherd villagers sell each separate color of wool for a price of 1 to 2 emeralds for one wool as part of their tier 2 trades.

Apprentice-level Shepherd villagers have a $1/32$ (3.125%) chance to sell one of 16 colored wool for an emerald.

Usage
Wool blocks are weak, highly flammable, and offer little resistance against explosions. Their primary usage is as a decorative block.

Trading
Shepherd villagers buy 16 to 22 white wool for 1 emerald as part of their tier 1 trades.

Shepherd villagers have a 25% chance to buy 18 white wool for an emerald, a 25% chance to buy 18 gray wool for an emerald, a 25% chance to buy 18 black wool for an emerald, and a 25% chance to buy 18 brown wool for an emerald as part of their first tier trades.

Note blocks
Wool blocks can be placed under note blocks to produce guitar sounds.‌

Crafting ingredient
Any color of wool or wood can be used for paintings but it has no effect on the product's final appearance.

Fuel
Wool can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 0.5 items per wool block.

Block data
In Bedrock Edition, wool uses the following data values:

Trivia

 * The data values for wool and their respective dyes are the inverse of each other. This is also true for stained glass, terracotta, shulker boxes, beds, banners, concrete powder and concrete.
 * On the Legacy Console Edition tutorial world, the Minecraft logo seen in the sky is made of stone bricks and black wool.