papyrus
Americannoun
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papyri,
plural
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papyruses
plural
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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.
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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.
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an ancient document, manuscript, or scroll written on this material.
noun
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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
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a kind of paper made from the stem pith of this plant, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
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an ancient document written on this paper
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of papyrus
1350–1400; Middle English papirus < Latin papȳrus < Greek pápȳros
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.
Vocabulary lists containing papyrus
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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Ancient Egypt - Middle School and High School
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Ancient Egypt and Kush, Lessons 1–3
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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.
See Examples For:
The papyrus underwent detailed study during a second research campaign held in January and February 2026.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Wheat-based glues have a long history in bookbinding that originates in ancient Egyptian texts, which experts have partially attributed to the longevity of the world's collection of papyrus documents.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
The Sumerians of Mesopotamia devised a love song by around 2000 BCE, and scholars of Ancient Egypt have found love songs inscribed into pottery and written on sheets of papyrus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
The Crosby-Schøyen Codex, written in Coptic script on papyrus in Egypt, dates to between 250-350AD.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2024
The Ancient and his little beast trudged off through the papyrus, and the boys went back to their tasks, Ranofer strengthened by the unaccustomed food and companionship, and buoyant with the thought of more tomorrow.
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
We provide for that by winding the mummies in papyruses, on which are written sentences, and by putting the ‘Book of the Dead’ in their coffins.
From The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt by Alexander Glovatski
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
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.
