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Showing results for wallpaper. Search instead for wallpaperers.
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:

And yes, a fourth-season subplot finds the first gentleman hightailing to London to find some purpose beyond perusing wallpaper swatches.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 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

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

The disrepair of the house did not bother her at all, the crumbling plaster, the peeling wallpaper, the faded paints or the columns; none of it made any difference.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

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

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

They had restored the great chandelier, the gilt columns, the finely patterned wallpapers, installing screens where there had been stages.

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

Now, ahead of the big game, the league has effectively wallpapered its image onto Las Vegas.

From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2024

But for the past eight or ten years, Mr. Larson had not bothered to take down the old papers—he just wallpapered over them with the new ones.

From "The Landry News" by Andrew Clements

Keep in mind: Not all rooms are good candidates for wallpapering.

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

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