paper

Universal Words noun, verb noun for writing / wrapping 1 [U] (often in compounds) the thin material that you write and draw on and that is also used for wrapping and packing things: a piece / sheet of paper * a package wrapped in brown paper * recycled paper * She wrote her name and address on a slip (= a small piece) of paper. * Experience is more important for this job than paper qualifications (= that exist on paper, but may not have any real value). * paper losses / profits (= that are shown in accounts but which may not exist in reality) seealsoNOTEPAPER, WRAPPINGPAPER, WRITINGPAPER newspaper 2 [C] a newspaper: a local / national paper * a daily / evening / Sunday paper * I read about it in the paper. * Have you seen today's paper? * The papers (= newspapers in general) soon got hold of the story. documents 3 (papers) [pl.] pieces of paper with writing on them, such as letters, pieces of work or private documents: His desk was covered with books and papers. * I found these documents among my father's papers after his death. 4 (papers) [pl.] official documents that prove your identity, give you permission to do sth, etc: divorce / identification papers * Immigration officials will ask to see your papers. seealsoWALKINGPAPERS, WORKINGPAPER exam 5 [C] (BrE) a set of exam questions on a particular subject; the answers that people write to the questions: The Geography paper was hard. * She spent the evening marking exam papers. article 6 [C] an academic article about a particular subject that is written by and for specialists: a recent paper in the Journal of Medicine * She was invited to give a paper (= a talk) on the results of her research. seealsoGREENPAPER, ORDERPAPER, POSITIONPAPER, WHITEPAPER, WORKINGPAPER(1) 7 [C] (AmE) a piece of written work done by a student: Your grade will be based on four papers and a final exam. seealsoTERMPAPER on walls 8 [C,U] paper that you use to cover and decorate the walls of a room SYNWALLPAPER: The room was damp and the paper was peeling off. HELPNOTE There are many other compounds ending in paper. You will find them at their place in the alphabet. IDIOMS on paper 1 when you put sth on paper, you write it down 2 judged from written information only, but not proved in practice: The idea looks good on paper. moreatPENn., WORTHadj. verb [VN] to decorate the walls of a room by covering them with WALLPAPER PHRASALVERBS paper over sth 1 to cover a wall with WALLPAPER in order to hide sth: The previous owners had obviously papered over any damp patches. = WALLPAPER 2 to try to hide a problem or disagreement in a way that is temporary and not likely to be successful: The government is trying to paper over the cracks in the cabinet. * We can't just paper over the problem.