wallpaper
Americannoun
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paper, usually with printed decorative patterns in color, for pasting on and covering the walls or ceilings of rooms, hallways, etc.
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any fabric, foil, vinyl material, etc., used as a wall or ceiling covering.
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Computers. a design or picture in the background of the primary display screen of a graphical user interface.
Personalize your tablet by changing the wallpaper.
verb (used with object)
noun
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paper usually printed or embossed with designs for pasting onto walls and ceilings
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something pleasant but bland which serves as an unobtrusive background
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( as modifier )
wallpaper music
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computing a graphics file that can be displayed in certain applications behind or around the main dialogue boxes, working display areas, etc, for decoration
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wallpapersimple
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wallpaperssimple
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have wallpaperedperfect
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has wallpaperedperfect
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am wallpaperingprogressive
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are wallpaperingprogressive
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is wallpaperingprogressive
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have been wallpaperingperfect progressive
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has been wallpaperingperfect progressive
Past
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wallpaperedsimple
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had wallpaperedperfect
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was wallpaperingprogressive
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were wallpaperingprogressive
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had been wallpaperingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wallpaper
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:
As if to underscore the radical turn these artists were making, the paintings are hung on an ornate plum-red wallpaper in a wainscoted gallery that harks back to the Grand Palais’s look.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Witkoff has become so ubiquitous in international transactions that his role as the co-founder of Trump’s business has all but faded into the gilt wallpaper of the Oval Office.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
After several thousand hours of filming, the wallpaper is changed to provide clients with variety.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
His first World Cup was Spain in 1982, when he and eight friends bought a campervan, covered it in tartan wallpaper and drove to Malaga.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
The barbecue sauce stain on Lenny’s wallpaper doesn’t let anyone forget.
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
The bathrooms exude charm thanks to their patterned wallpapers.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
He raised the roof of the house he inherited; added wings, a porch and a cupola; and selected—along with his wife, Martha—the interior’s paint colors, wallpapers and furniture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
"The target market for this is insanely small," he told one user on X last September who questioned his decision to launch a digital wallpapers app.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025
I designed some almost-old-fashioned floral wallpapers for this house, but they’re often purposefully paired with a stripe.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2025
Flames had made their way into the lobby, catching on the thick carpet, on the restored wallpapers, the posters.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Common to much of the user-generated content are eerie images and haunting stories of mysterious, yellow wallpapered corridors and empty office-like spaces that exist outside of, or beyond, reality itself.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
From wallpapered ceilings and hand-painted murals to lattice-covered walls and dueling kitchen islands, each room is a visual delight, even if it’s not your personal taste.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025
A wallpapered room lit by ceiling bulb is just visible upstairs.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2024
The couple took an easier approach in the second room, wallpapered with an artsy series of sardine cans.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2023
The bedroom had been wallpapered with pictures of Ladybird Hope.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
If Nickey and Kehoe are working with a lively pattern in a bedroom, for instance, wallpapering a single wall behind the bed may be enough.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
She says the company took her and her colleagues on training courses to learn how to to do DIY, such as painting and wallpapering.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2023
These long chains of fractions could stretch out across 15 feet of notebook pages wallpapering his cell.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 2, 2023
For more than half a century, Reita Green has run her own wallpapering business in and around Los Angeles.
From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
The mural itself had been damaged in spots by all the wallpapering done over it, so she was not able to make out the artist’s signature.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
