carbon paper
Americannoun
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paper faced with a preparation of carbon or other material, used between two sheets of plain paper in order to reproduce on the lower sheet that which is written or typed on the upper.
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Also called carbon tissue. a paper for making photographs by the carbon process.
noun
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Often shortened to: carbon. a thin sheet of paper coated on one side with a dark waxy pigment, often containing carbon, that is transferred by the pressure of writing or of typewriter keys onto the copying surface below
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another name for carbon tissue
Etymology
Origin of carbon paper
First recorded in 1875–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By then, standard-issue electric typewriters and six-ply carbon paper had been replaced by far less visually interesting computers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
I discovered her body in all those paragraphs on second-sheet carbon paper.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2025
The scientists then adhere the nanoparticles to carbon paper that is hydrophilic, or attracted to water molecules.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024
He was brilliantly hazed by a co-worker who told him, while Bernstein was wearing a beloved cream-colored suit, that he had to “wash” all the staff’s used carbon paper.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
From his church Helmuth helps himself to carbon paper and typing paper—bright red paper, rarely used, so it won't be missed.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
