hardcover

[hahrd-kuhv-er]

noun

1. a book bound in cloth, leather, or the like, over stiff material.

   Hardcovers are more durable than paperbacks.

adjective

1. bound in cloth, leather, or the like, over stiff material.

   a hardcover series.

2. noting or pertaining to hardcover books.

   hardcover sales.

Other Word Forms

• hardcovered adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of hardcover¹

First recorded in 1945–50; hard + cover

Example Sentences

Edward Ashton removed a small hardcover book from within the pile of papers.

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“The Correspondent” spent one week on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list in early October.

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Some books read like hardcover screenplays, so easily translated to the movies that publishing them first as a novel almost seems like an unnecessary formality.

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The special hardcover edition of the seminal LGBTQ+ coming of age memoir includes commentary by Kobabe as well as other comic creators and scholars.

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This particular copy is one of just 500 from the first hardcover printing in the U.K.

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Related Words

• album 
• booklet 
• brochure 
• copy 
• dictionary 
• edition 
• essay 
• fiction 
• magazine 
• manual 
• novel 
• pamphlet 
• paperback 
• publication 
• text 
• textbook 
• tome 
• volume 
• work 
• writing