Absorbent nonwoven fabric

A nonwoven fabric having substantially uniform absorbent characteristics and a generally sinusoidal fiber distribution curve over its cross-sectional area which said cross-sectional area is taken over a repeating pattern three interconnected fiber arrays of said fabric, said fiber distribution curve being defined by a percentage of area covered by fibers, said curve resulting from a plurality of fiber coverage points indicative of the amount of fiber coverage at equally spaced locations across the cross-sectional area of the fabric, said fabric having a repeating pattern of three interconnected fiber arrays, the first fiber array including a plurality of parallel fiber segments, the second fiber array including a plurality of twisted and turned fiber segments which form a band that is disposed substantially perpendicular to the parallel fiber segments of the first fiber array, the third fiber array interconnecting the first and second fiber arrays and comprising a plurality of highly entangled fiber segments, said fiber arrays being constructed and arranged such that an average percentage of area of fiber coverage in a cross-section of the fabric times 1/2 an average number of maximum and minimum fiber coverage points in a cycle of said generally sinusoidal fiber distribution curve divided by an average amplitude of the generally sinusoidal fiber distribution curve is at least 600, wherein the average number of maximum coverage and minimum coverage points in a cycle is 4 or more to provide a periodicity of at least 2.