DictionaryAI

newspaper

NOOZ-pay-pur/ˈn(j)usˌpeɪpɚ/UKNYOOZ-pay-puh/ˈnjuːsˌpeɪpə/

Pluralnewspapers

6 meanings of newspaper

Practice

  1. 1
    news publicationnouncountable
    A publication, usually issued daily or weekly, that contains news reports and other articles, printed on cheap paper or published digitally.

    The local newspaper ran a story about the school's funding cuts.

    She subscribes to two national newspapers for their political coverage.

    UsageNews is in the newspaper (not incorrect: on the newspaper). Often shortened to the paper, with no change in tone.

    Similarpaper, rag

    Note

    A plain compound of news and paper, and the second half has outlasted its material: the word still names the publication when it arrives on a screen rather than a doorstep.

  2. 2
    nounmetonymicallycountable
    A news organization that researches, writes, and publishes a newspaper, usually daily or weekly, and related content.

    The newspaper assigned three journalists to investigate the scandal.

    That newspaper has won several awards for its reporting.

    Similarpaper

    Note

    Here the product lends its name to the people who make it, a metonymy in which the paper stands for the newsroom. You can tell this meaning by its verbs: a newspaper that is afraid of hard-hitting investigative journalism, or one that doesn't run from a fight, is an institution with a will, not the publication itself. Such organizations form part of the press, or news media.

  3. 3
    the materialnoununcountable
    The cheap, low-quality paper of the kind used to print daily and weekly publications.

    He used old newspaper to light the campfire.

    The movers padded the china with crumpled newspaper.

    UsageUsually no a for the paper itself: wrapped in newspaper. Newsprint names only the paper, so it avoids a mix-up with the publication.

    Similarnewsprint

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    cover (surfaces)verbtransitive
    To cover or line a surface with sheets of newspaper.

    Before you start sanding, newspaper the floor so the dust is easy to sweep up.

    Across the street, the old bakery stood empty, its windows newspapered over from the inside.

    UsageOften with over for windows: the windows were newspapered over.

    Similarpaper, cover

  2. 5
    attack in printverbobsoletetransitive
    To harass or persecute someone through hostile newspaper articles.
    Note

    The newspaper as weapon, a usage now obsolete. The verb takes the person attacked as its object, and it can be followed by where the campaign drove them: he got newspapered out of public life. A modern writer would say hounded by the press. Reviving this verb reads as deliberate period color, and it risks being taken for covering with sheets of paper.

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The harassment sense is obsolete and transitive, with the attacked person as its object. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb can take a phrase expressing the result of the harassment, as in the supplied example. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb also has a literal covering sense. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 6
    verb
    To work in the profession of journalism; to gather, write, and publish news for a living.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of newspaper apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

A compound formed from "news" and "paper."

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact