parchment

American  

[pahrch-muhnt] / ˈpɑrtʃ mənt /

noun

• parchments
  plural

1. the skin of sheep, goats, etc., prepared for use as a material on which to write.

2. a manuscript or document on such material.

3. a stiff, off-white paper resembling this material.

4. a diploma.

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parchment British  

/ ˈpɑːtʃmənt /

noun

1. the skin of certain animals, such as sheep, treated to form a durable material, as for bookbinding, or (esp formerly) manuscripts

2. a manuscript, bookbinding, etc, made of or resembling this material

3. a type of stiff yellowish paper resembling parchment

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• parchmentlike
  adjective
• parchmenty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• parchments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of parchment

1275–1325; late Middle English < Middle French, Old French ( parche < Latin Parthica ( pellis ) Parthian (leather) + -ment (compare Medieval Latin percamentum, Dutch perkament )); replacing Middle English parchemin < Old French ( -min < Medieval Latin pergamīnum, variant of pergamēnum, for Late Latin Pergamēna charta paper of Pergamum )

Explanation

Parchment is what people used to write on before paper was common, hundreds of years ago. Instead of being made from trees, parchment was made from animal skins. As early as the second century BCE, ancient Greeks invented a method of treating animal skins to make a writing surface, parchment, that was less expensive than the papyrus they used before that. Parchment continued to be used through the 1400s, when Europeans began making paper. These days, you're most likely to see parchment in a museum or historical movie. The word comes from the name of the city where it was invented, Pergamon.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parchment parchments

It also turns the leaders of the AI companies into Lewis and Clark in coonskin caps with parchment maps, bravely surveying our country that it might understand its true size.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

His pale, almost translucently white skin was stretched across the bones of his face like parchment.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Prepare the pan: Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Researchers believe historic parchment represents a largely unexplored source of information that could connect genetics with questions traditionally studied by historians, archaeologists, and other scholars.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

When early civilizations started pressing reeds to clay tablets, carving figures in stone, and daubing ink on parchment and on papyrus, number systems had already been well-established.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

"We've shown that we're able to extract a tremendous amount of new information from these parchments without harming them," says Breen.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

There are no secret documents or Ark of the Covenant filled with parchments detailing punt returns, two-point plays or gunner lanes stored away on family property, they say.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2022

The National Archives rotunda where they sit is dim and chilly, for conservation reasons, and visitors shuffling past the displays can see why — the parchments are faded and hardly legible.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2018

The Vatican used to outsource the parchments to craftsmen around town, but earlier this year cancelled the work to keep all proceeds in-house.

From US News ● Dec. 14, 2015

José Arcadio Segundo had managed, furthermore, to classify the cryptic letters of the parchments.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez