papers
- 1Plural of paper.
The students submitted their papers before the deadline.
He shuffled through the loose papers looking for the receipt.
UsageFor the material in general, say some paper or a sheet of paper; papers can mean essays, reports, documents or newspapers.
- 2Official documents or identification carried by a person, such as a passport.
Customs officers checked everyone's papers at the crossing.
He was detained because his papers were not in order.
UsageUsually with a possessive (your papers); papers are in order when they are valid, and can be forged or lost.
Similardocuments, documentation, credentials, ID, identification
Note
Identity in the plural, even when it is a single passport: nobody asks to see your paper. The word covers whatever proves who you are or what you are allowed to do, and it goes naturally with forged, lost, and in order. Ships carry papers too. The 1855 treaty between Britain and Siam speaks of vessels sailing under British colors and with British papers, documents that proved the ship's nationality the way a passport proves a traveler's.
- 3The documents, letters, and unpublished writings of a person or body, kept as a collection in an archive or library.
The author's papers include unpublished drafts and decades of correspondence.
Historians often cite the general's papers when reconstructing the campaign.
UsageUsually with a person's name or a possessive: the senator's papers, the Lincoln papers.
Similararchives, documents, records
Note
Here the documents have outlived their first purpose and become a record. Like the identity-document meaning, it is plural-only and usually possessive, so a phrase such as the general's papers can point either way. Context settles it: papers checked at a border prove who someone is, while papers held in a library are studied as a collection of drafts, letters and records.
Less common meanings
- 4Thin sheets of paper used for hand-rolling cigarettes.
He tore one of the papers from the booklet and started rolling.
The shop sells filters, papers, and loose tobacco behind the counter.
UsageWhere the meaning may not be clear, say cigarette papers or rolling papers.
Note
Among smokers the word cigarette drops away and papers alone does the work: in Norman Lindsay's Age of Consent someone asks for "a tin of cigarette tobacco and some papers." The tobacco beside it is what makes the meaning plain.
- 5Third-person singular simple present of paper.
The decorator papers each room in a soft neutral shade.
She carefully papers the nursery before the baby arrives.
UsageUsually takes the room or wall as its object; papers over a problem means hides it without fixing it.
Showing meanings only.
papers is a form of paper
paper, noun: A 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. Full entry
- Forms
- paperpapers plural
- Spelling
- paper → papers: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Practice
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