scroll

American  

[skrohl] / skroʊl /

noun

• scrolls
  plural

1. a roll of parchment, paper, copper, or other material, especially one with writing on it.

   a scroll containing the entire Old Testament.

2. something, especially an ornament, resembling a partly unrolled sheet of paper or having a spiral or coiled form.

3. a list, roll, roster, or schedule.

4. (in Japanese and Chinese art) a painting or text on silk or paper that is either displayed on a wall hanging scroll or held by the viewer hand scroll and is rolled up when not in use.

5. the curved head of a violin or other bowed instrument.

6. a note, message, or other piece of writing.

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verb (used with object)

• scrolls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• scrolled,
  past participle,  past
• scrolling
  present participle

1. to cut into a curved form with a narrow-bladed saw.

2. Computers. to move (text) up, down, or across a display screen, with new text appearing on the screen as old text disappears.

verb (used without object)

• scrolls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• scrolled,
  past participle,  past
• scrolling
  present participle

1. Computers. to move text vertically or horizontally on a display screen in searching for a particular section, line, etc.

scroll British  

/ skrəʊl /

noun

1. a roll of parchment, paper, etc, usually inscribed with writing

2. an ancient book in the form of a roll of parchment, papyrus, etc

3. 1. a decorative carving or moulding resembling a scroll

   2. ( as modifier )

      a scroll saw

   3. ( in combination )

      scrollwork

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verb

1. (tr) to saw into scrolls

2. to roll up like a scroll

3. computing to move (text) from right to left or up and down on a screen in order to view text that cannot be contained within a single display image

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• scroll-like
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• scrolls
  plural

Participles

• scrolling
  present
• scrolled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• scroll
  simple
• scrolls
  simple
• have scrolled
  perfect
• has scrolled
  perfect
• am scrolling
  progressive
• are scrolling
  progressive
• is scrolling
  progressive
• have been scrolling
  perfect progressive
• has been scrolling
  perfect progressive

Past

• scrolled
  simple
• had scrolled
  perfect
• was scrolling
  progressive
• were scrolling
  progressive
• had been scrolling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will scroll
  simple
• will have scrolled
  perfect
• will be scrolling
  progressive
• will have been scrolling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of scroll

1350–1400; Middle English scrowle; blend of scrow, aphetic variant of escrow and rowle roll

Explanation

A rolled up piece of paper is a scroll. If you write a poem on a sheet of paper, roll it up, and tie it with a ribbon, you can call it a scroll. Before books existed, people wrote stories or important information on parchment or papyrus and rolled them into scrolls for easy storage and transport. Sometimes, a scroll would serve as a work of art, a decorated tale that would occasionally be unrolled and displayed. These days, when you scroll through something, you're probably reading it on a computer, moving down the screen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scroll scrolls scrolled scrolling

Take a scroll through Instagram and TikTok, and you’ll see fan edit-style videos of Ossoff at campaign rallies and in Senate hearings.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026

“I’ll bring in my Switch. I’ll bring in my computer. I’ll play some games, do some work, scroll on my phone,” Butler said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

A quick scroll through TikTok reveals numerous accounts, many of them created in the past few weeks, sharing photos and videos of an elusive black-and-white feline wearing the famous, towering, crooked red-and-white striped hat.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

Mr. Friedman runs the PitchingNinja account on X, an entertaining scroll of nasty pitches and baffled hitters he started in 2014.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Imani clicks on “Movies” and starts to scroll down.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

British heavyweight Moses Itauma pulls out his phone and scrolls through his pictures.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

From one collection point alone came more than 900 Torah scrolls and roughly 250,000 books.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The old-school kind where everybody is mostly well-behaved and polite, and the audience scrolls on their phones to stay awake.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026

On our Zoom call, Herberhold scrolls through the TikTok feed she uses as a shell account to study the Com network.

From Slate ● May 12, 2026

They’re tied in scrolls and labeled with the name of the person they’re for.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina

Both were littered with sports events, which I scrolled past, but also had sections for elections, politics, tech and a lot more.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

Her voice broke as she scrolled through dozens of photos and videos on her phone.

From Barron's ● May 22, 2026

In the hours after he was re-elected, councillor Shazad Fazal scrolled through the messages he had been sent on Facebook.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

At the less high-end mall next door, Sunlink Furniture City, sales associates scrolled on their phones with few passersby.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026

Frames showing bits of various yarns scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and the remains of this morning’s filming still littered the table by the window.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

“This is about the features themselves. This is about actually addressing the problem, the scrolling, the algorithms,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Experts point to strategies companies use to encourage scrolling, like never-ending feeds, intermittent rewards and time-sensitive notifications.

From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026

Social media firms have long faced scrutiny over their use of allegedly addictive algorithms and stand accused of directing users to sensational or extreme content to keep them scrolling.

From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026

Now the company has six months to update its apps, including limiting users under the age of 18 to two hours a day and blocking them from scrolling feeds overnight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

I sit half in, half out, scrolling through my texts from Finch.

From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven

Related Words

• manuscript