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Showing results for wallpaper. Search instead for wallpaperer.
Synonyms

wallpaper

American  
[wawl-pay-per] / ˈwɔlˌpeɪ pər /

noun

  1. paper, usually with printed decorative patterns in color, for pasting on and covering the walls or ceilings of rooms, hallways, etc.

  2. any fabric, foil, vinyl material, etc., used as a wall or ceiling covering.

  3. 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)

  • wallpapers,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • wallpapered,
    past participle,  past
  • wallpapering
    present participle
  1. to put wallpaper on (a wall, ceiling, etc.) or to furnish (a room, house, etc.) with wallpaper.

wallpaper British  
/ ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə /

noun

  1. paper usually printed or embossed with designs for pasting onto walls and ceilings

    1. something pleasant but bland which serves as an unobtrusive background

    2. ( as modifier )

      wallpaper music

  2. computing a graphics file that can be displayed in certain applications behind or around the main dialogue boxes, working display areas, etc, for decoration

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to cover (a surface) with wallpaper

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of wallpaper

First recorded in 1820–30; wall + paper


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:

There are all sorts of giant gadgets for the games, which might involve skill or stamina or being smart and involve a giant gumball machine or lickable wallpaper, per the book and movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Eataly itself sells a $25.99 Alfredo that, unlike so many jarred Alfredo sauces, does not taste as though someone dissolved Parmesan into wallpaper paste.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026

When they handed the property over, it boasted emerald green walls, a rattan monkey chandelier, and banana-leaf wallpaper.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

These systems have tics—em-dashes sprinkled everywhere, flattery, frequent resort to antithetical contrast—repeated until they become wallpaper, but the problem is greater than that.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

There’s a hole in both the wall and the ceiling, and the wallpaper is curling and brown.

From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Its fine jewelry is paired with wallpapers from French design house Mauny and fabrics by Pierre Frey and Lee Jofa.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 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 great outdoors played a significant role in the design of the home, which was outfitted with multiple organic elements, including silk wallpapers, fossil stone floors, and rich wood accents and beams throughout.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026

It includes prints, watercolours, ceramics, wallpapers, murals, posters, advertising designs, book illustrations and even a garden bench.

From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2024

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

The Boston Globe’s lead baseball scribe wallpapered the sports section with his Sunday Notes column, providing intelligence from all around Major League Baseball.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

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

He records his first-hand “George Perez Stories” podcast and YouTube videos in a studio wallpapered with every vinyl comedy album he can find.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2024

The dining room has a coffered ceiling, tall wainscoting with wallpapered panels, and a period chandelier and sconces.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 19, 2022

At the far end was a nearly invisible door, wallpapered over like the entrance to a secret passageway.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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

Within months Pate had become Green’s partner in wallpapering, her protégé and — most important — her best friend.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 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

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