Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

paperback

[pey-per-bak]
See more synonyms for paperback on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a book bound in a flexible paper cover, often a lower-priced edition of a hardcover book.
Show More
adjective
  1. (of a book) bound in a flexible paper cover: a paperback edition of Orwell's novel.
  2. of, for, or pertaining to paperbacks: a paperback bookstore.
Show More
Also softcover; pa·per·bound [pey-per-bound] /ˈpeɪ pərˌbaʊnd/, softbound (for defs 1, 2).
Compare hardcover.

Origin of paperback

First recorded in 1895–1900; paper + back1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for paperbound

Historical Examples

  • Mrs. Owen rose and transferred a pile of paperbound books from a shelf to her desk.

    A Hoosier Chronicle

    Meredith Nicholson


British Dictionary definitions for paperbound

paperback

noun
  1. a book or edition with covers made of flexible card, sold relatively cheaplyCompare hardback
Show More
adjective Also: paperbound, soft-cover
  1. of or denoting a paperback or publication of paperbacks
Show More
verb (tr)
  1. to publish in paperback
Show More
Derived Formspaperbacker, noun
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

Word Origin and History for paperbound

paperback

n.

1899, from paper (n.) + back (n.). Adjective paper-backed attested from 1888.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/paperbound
www.dictionary.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-34
57877
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:K5DPEPA7RNKHGC74BMKLMX5KGYG5JJBV
<urn:uuid:2be6bed3-f14e-43fe-b5a8-69ca38335b02>
2018-08-21T15:42:38Z
23.47.26.184
text/html
sha1:OL4O4DHTDPNMQMMCROADEUTVKETH4QAL
<urn:uuid:31ccffec-249b-492e-a830-f28192f9a454>
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/paperbound
response
<urn:uuid:a66c6e0f-d884-4e21-8bae-8dbcb5a0124b>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-34
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-251-180.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/