Meaning of paper In English

• 0 thin, flat material made from crushed wood or cloth, used for writing, printing, or drawing on:

  • a piece/sheet of paper

  • writing paper

  • Dictionaries are usually printed on thin paper.

  • a paper bag

  • This card is printed on recycled paper (= paper made from used paper).

  • Get the idea down on paper (= write it) before you forget it.

  • She works on paper (= writes things on paper) because she hates computers.

• 1 a newspaper:

  • a daily/weekly/local/national paper

  • The photo was on the front page of all the papers.

  • The border guards stopped me and asked to see my papers.

  • Candidates must answer two questions from each paper.

  • The geography paper is not till next week.

  • He will give a paper on thermodynamics at a conference in Berlin.

  • Mr Jones thought my history paper was terrific.

  • For homework I want you to write a paper on endangered species.

• 2 to cover a wall, room, etc. with wallpaper

• 3 a thin, flat material made from crushed wood or cloth used esp. for writing and printing on and in packaging:

  • [ U ] a piece/sheet of paper

  • [ U ] a paper bag/towel

  • [ U ] paper cups/napkins/plates

  • Let's put some of your good ideas down on paper (= write them down)

  • [ C ] I read it in the paper.

  • [ C ] One of the course requirements is a 20-page paper.

• 4 to put wallpaper (= decorative paper) on a surface, esp. a wall:

  • We plan to paper the dining room.

• 5 thin, flat material used for writing, printing, or drawing on:

  • There was a huge stack of papers on her desk.

  • a sheet/piece of paper Someone had printed the memo on yellow sheets of paper and posted it around the office.

  • The paper industry recovery of the last year shows little sign of slowing down.

• 6 a newspaper, or the company that owns and operates a newspaper:

  • Murdoch has made an offer to buy the paper.

  • in the papers There was nothing about the trial in the papers this morning.

  • an article in Hong Kong's leading financial paper

  • a daily/weekly paper

  • a local/national paper

• 7 assets in the form of bonds, shares, etc., as opposed to cash:

  • The rise in share prices encourages bidders to issue their own paper.

  • The system failed because people realized that the securitized financial paper was not worth the top rating it had received.

• 8 official documents that show who you are:

  • The company was fined for hiring over a hundred immigrants without papers.

• 9 an official government or legal document:

  • Lawyers argued in papers submitted last month that lower courts were wrong to dismiss the lawsuit.

  • The committee issued a paper stating that further information and analysis was required.

• 10 a piece of writing on a particular subject, written by an expert and usually published in a book or journal:

  • The paper recommends a series of steps for dealing with the problem.

• 11 written or printed on paper:

  • The engineers worked out their ideas on paper.

  • It's a good plan on paper, but will it really work?