papyrus

American  

[puh-pahy-ruhs] / pəˈpaɪ rəs /

noun

• papyri,
  plural
• papyruses
  plural

1. a tall, aquatic plant, Cyperus papyrus, of the sedge family, native to the Nile valley: the Egyptian subspecies, C. papyrus hadidii, thought to be common in ancient times, now occurs only in several sites.

2. a material on which to write, prepared from thin strips of the pith of this plant laid together, soaked, pressed, and dried, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

3. an ancient document, manuscript, or scroll written on this material.

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papyrus British  

/ pəˈpaɪrəs /

noun

1. a tall aquatic cyperaceous plant, Cyperus papyrus, of S Europe and N and central Africa with small green-stalked flowers arranged like umbrella spokes around the stem top

2. a kind of paper made from the stem pith of this plant, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans

3. an ancient document written on this paper

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• papyral
  adjective
• papyrian
  adjective
• papyrine
  adjective
• papyritious
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• papyri
  plural
• papyruses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of papyrus

1350–1400; Middle English papirus < Latin papȳrus < Greek pápȳros

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Explanation

The word "paper" comes from papyrus, which is "the paper plant, or paper made from it." When the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans wanted to jot something down, they used papyrus. Papyrus plants used to grow all over the Nile Delta in Egypt, which is why it was so popular with the King Tut set. They used it to make everything from mattresses to sandals, but papyrus is mostly famous as the thick paper ancient Egyptians wrote important documents on, like, say, a note from Cleopatra. It also refers to the paper itself, like the recently discovered papyrus of Cleopatra, on which she wrote "make it happen." Yes ma'am.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

papyrus papyri papyruses

A fertile area of Egypt on the edge of the desert, Fayum's arid climate helped preserve the delicate painted wood, textiles and papyrus on display in the exhibition.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026

History is a fragile thing, a vision of the past made mostly of fragments—clay tablets and potsherds, papyrus scraps and bits of bone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

Once the writing was finished, Seiler, an affiliate of Berkeley SETI, rolled up the papyrus, sealed it inside a container, placed it in a high-temperature furnace, and burned it until it was thoroughly carbonized.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

Then he paid high school students to write on the papyrus using passages from "Star Wars," the Bible, and a quote from the 1960s science fiction television show "The Outer Limits."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

He had reached the true marsh now, where thicket gave way entirely to the dense fringe of papyrus growing in the shallow margins of the Nile.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Located about 190 kilometers south of Cairo near the Bahr Yussef branch of the Nile, the site has long been known for preserving thousands of ancient papyri.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

Early attempts to open the papyri created a mess of fragments, and scholars feared the remainder could never be unrolled or read.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 17, 2023

“Ithaca’s architecture makes it really applicable to any ancient language, not just Latin, but Mayan, cuneiform; really any written medium — papyri, manuscripts,” she said.

From The Verge ● Mar. 9, 2022

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the papyri with scraps of the New Testament were to show that biblical text has survived in the same form since it was written.

From Slate ● Oct. 4, 2021

Out of 125 papyri recording contemporary legal cases, fully 20 percent involve personal squabbles between individual Greeks and Egyptians.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Historically, biblical writings, Egyptian papyruses and the medical texts of the classical Greeks show that infertility was a common condition and that women were primarily blamed.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 22, 2018

Now, however, German papyrologist Carsten Peter Thiede has startled the rarefied world of biblical scholarship by arguing that the papyruses are actually the oldest extant fragments of the New Testament, dating from about A.D.

From Time Magazine Archive

Inscriptions, papyruses, books time-bind the human species and permit us to hear those few voices and faint cries of our brothers and sisters, our ancestors.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Thou art groping among papyruses, but I have served seven years in the army, and there was almost no day which I did not pass in drill or maneuvers.

From The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt by Jeremiah Curtin

After Hiram’s departure the heir shut himself up in the most remote chamber under pretext of reading sacred papyruses.

From The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt by Alexander Glovatski

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Related Words

• card
• note
• pad
• poster
• sheet
• stationery

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