paper
Pluralpapers
Pluralpapers
Formspapers, papering, papered
- 1A thin sheet material, usually made by draining cellulose fibers from a watery pulp, used mainly for writing and printing or for packaging that is not waterproof.
He jotted the address on a scrap of paper.
Most paper is made from wood pulp that is pressed into thin sheets and dried.
UsageFor one sheet, say a sheet of paper or a piece of paper.
- 2Short for newspaper: a publication of news and other articles, usually issued daily or weekly, or the organization that publishes it.
Every local paper carried the scandal on its front page that week.
She canceled the paper while she was away on vacation.
UsageNews is in the paper (not
incorrect: on the paper). The papers means the press in general.Note
Clipped from newspaper, the short form does most of the everyday work. Like newspaper, it can name the organization as well as the pages.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Paper in the newspaper sense is shortened from newspaper. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A piece of writing on a particular subject, such as a student essay, an official report, or an article presenting academic or scientific research.
The reviewers asked the authors to revise their paper before publication.
She co-wrote a paper on memory formation for the neuroscience journal.
UsageYou write, publish or present a paper on a subject, in a journal or at a conference.
Similararticle, essay, study, report
Note
Research writing lets the document speak for itself. Abstracts often open with "This paper surveys…" or "This paper argues…", as Claire Kramsch's 2014 article in AILA Review does.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Claire Kramsch's article in the 2014 volume of AILA Review opens its abstract with “This paper surveys…”. benjamins.com
- 4Consisting of or made out of paper.
Each guest drank from a paper cup at the picnic.
The artist built an entire city out of paper models.
- 5Existing only in plans, records, or name, rather than actually built, realized, or backed by real power.
For years the bypass was a paper scheme that no government funded.
The fleet looked impressive on charts, but half of it was a paper navy.
UsageGoes before the noun: a paper company, a paper navy. The phrase on paper means in theory.
Similarnominal, notional, theoretical
Note
Aerospace reporting uses it as a put-down for a design that exists only in drawings: a paper engine, a paper rocket. Its natural opposite is real, as in Flight Global's 2015 "not just a paper engine but a real engine". Where the "flimsy" meaning says a thing is weak, this one says it does not exist yet.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- FlightGlobal published the quoted contrast between a paper engine and a real engine in 2015. flightglobal.com
- 6Financial assets other than coins, including banknotes, commercial bills, and similar instruments.
During the crisis, investors dumped corporate paper and rushed into gold.
The treasury issues short-term paper to manage its cash needs.
Similarsecurities, debt, bills, notes
Note
A banker's word defined by its opposite, specie, or coined metal. In The Bankers' Magazine of 1859, a bank holds specie in its vaults and has millions invested in paper, loans and discounts. The term commercial paper keeps the sense alive in the markets, and paper money is the kind most people handle.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Specie means coined precious metal and is contrasted with paper. en.wiktionary.org
- Commercial bills can also pass from hand to hand through endorsement. bankofengland.co.uk
- 7A set of examination questions to be answered in a single session.
Candidates sat the chemistry paper first thing on Monday morning.
She found the second maths paper much harder than the first.
UsageStudents sit or take a paper, and one subject can have several: the second maths paper.
Similarexam, test, examination
- 8Formal documents issued by an authority, especially those that show who someone is, their legal status or what they own.
Without proper immigration papers, he couldn't legally accept the job.
The seller handed over the car's ownership papers along with the keys.
Similardocuments, documentation
Note
Only the plural carries this meaning: a border guard asks to see your papers, never your paper, and the singular falls back to the sheet material or a written report. The word usually comes with a possessive or a qualifier saying whose documents they are or what they prove: our papers, immigration papers, the car's ownership papers.
Less common meanings
- 9
- 10Lacking real strength or substance; flimsy, like ordinary paper.
The treaty proved a paper barrier against an army determined to advance.
The cheap hotel had paper walls, so we heard every word from the room next door.
UsageBest known in paper tiger, something that looks strong but is weak. Also paper walls.
Similarflimsy, hollow, toothless, token, ineffectual
Oppositereal, effective, robust
Note
The weakness of common paper became a verdict on anything that looks stronger than it is. Its home is the fixed phrase paper tiger, and the pattern stretches to other nouns. In 2016 The Australian quoted a claim that Australia was not even a paper tiger, "only a paper cat at best".
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The figurative sense derives from the weakness of ordinary paper. en.wiktionary.org
- The Australian reported the paper-tiger/paper-cat claim in 2016. en.wiktionary.org
- The quoted description of Australia accurately reproduces the original claim. globaltimes.cn
- 11In rock-paper-scissors, an open, flat hand shape that beats rock and loses to scissors.
A player who throws paper beats rock yet loses to scissors every time.
He guessed she'd pick paper again and countered with scissors.
- 12Short for wrapping paper: paper used to cover gifts or packages, often printed with colorful designs.
He smoothed the festive paper and taped the final corner.
We ran out of paper halfway through wrapping the gifts.
UsageUsually wrap something in paper; when opening a gift you tear the paper off.
Note
One clipped word covers two kinds of wrapping. There is plain, often brown, paper around a parcel or a butcher's block of cheese, and bright, decorative paper around presents. Context decides which is meant.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Paper is an elliptical shortening of wrapping paper. en.wiktionary.org
- 13Short for wallpaper: paper, usually printed with a color or pattern, pasted onto the walls of a room as decoration.
She chose a striped paper for the dining room.
Moisture had loosened the paper along the baseboard.
UsageDecorators hang paper. In everyday talk wallpaper is the usual word.
Note
Decorators clip wallpaper to its last word, and their trade talk follows: paperhangers hang the paper, and particular kinds take compounds such as flock-paper. The matching verb is paper a room, so the noun and the job share one short word.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Paper is an ellipsis of wallpaper. en.wiktionary.org
- 14To cover or line a surface with paper, as in decorating a wall.
The decorator papered the hallway in a bold floral print.
She plans to paper the alcove and tile the rest of the room.
UsageUsually paper a room or wall, often in a pattern: papered the hallway in a floral print.
Similarwallpaper, line, cover, decorate
Oppositestrip
- 15To drape someone's house, trees, and yard with toilet paper, usually as a prank.
Each spring, neighborhood teenagers paper the coach's house after a win.
The pranksters chose to paper the whole front lawn overnight.
UsageTP or toilet-paper a house is clearer, since paper a house can mean hang wallpaper.
SimilarTP
- 16To record or document something in writing, especially to create an official record.
Staff papered each complaint so nothing slipped through the cracks.
Before firing anyone, managers are told to paper every warning and missed deadline.
UsageOften with up: paper up a deal once it is agreed.
- 17To submit official documents to a law court or similar authority.
Hoping to stall the case, the company's lawyers papered the court with motions and appeals.
Big firms sometimes paper the court with filings until the other side runs out of money.
UsageUsually paper a court with filings, often meaning flood it: papered the court with motions.
Note
Often a word of excess. To paper a court with petitions is to flood it, and an employer papering a personnel file is building a written case. Drusilla Modjeska's The Best Australian Essays 2006 has lawyers who papered the federal courts with habeas corpus petitions.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Drusilla Modjeska edited The Best Australian Essays 2006. hazelrowley.com
- The anthology contains the cited wording about lawyers papering federal courts with habeas corpus petitions. en.wiktionary.org
- 18A papery substance produced by certain invertebrates to shield their nests and eggs.
Hornets build the outer layers of their nest from a gray paper they make by chewing wood.
A queen wasp begins her colony by shaping a small cell of paper.
- 19
- 20To fill a theater or other event that normally charges admission with people given complimentary seats.
For the first previews, the producers papered the house with friends and relatives of the cast.
Seat-filling services paper Broadway shows by sending their members to sit in unsold seats.
UsageUsually paper the house; the practice is called papering.
Note
Kelly Kessler's Broadway in the Box (2020) describes "seat-filling" or "papering" services that send people to sit in unsold seats. The verb belongs with the old word for free passes.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Kelly Kessler wrote Broadway in the Box, published in 2020. depaul.edu
- Kessler describes services using the terms 'seat-filling' and 'papering'. en.wiktionary.org
- The theatrical verb is associated with the older noun 'paper' meaning free admission passes. en.wikisource.org
- 21Free passes of admission to a theater or similar event, or the audience members admitted on such passes.
Note
Theater talk, now dated. The free passes themselves were called paper, so a house could be full of paper and still earn little. You are most likely to meet it in older writing about the stage. The verb papering the house is the form still in current use.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Theater admission passes, and the people admitted with them, were called 'paper'. en.wikisource.org
- A theater filled with people admitted free could have little admission revenue; this follows from the meaning of 'paper'. en.wikisource.org
- 22To wrap or enclose something in paper.
- 23A folded paper packet that holds a measured quantity of small items.
- 24To smooth or rub a surface with sandpaper.
- 25To announce publicly, usually by displaying posters, that someone is wanted by the police or another authority.
- 26A medicinal preparation spread on paper and applied to the skin from the outside.
- 27In bookbinding, to fit a book with its endpapers and flyleaves, pasting them in at either end before it goes into its covers.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek "πάπυρος" (pápuros) gave Latin "papȳrus," which Old Catalan borrowed as "paper," adding its suffix -er. From there it passed to Anglo-Norman "paper" and Middle English "paper."