noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A thin, strong, light, translucent paper; used especially for making carbon copies. countable, uncountable

   "I heard the dry-leaf rustle of onionskin papers."

2. 2
   a thin strong lightweight translucent paper used especially for making carbon copies wordnet
3. 3
   A kind of marble with swirls of color on the outside. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

flimsyonion paperpapertransparencytransparent things

Example

More examples

"I heard the dry-leaf rustle of onionskin papers."

Etymology

From onion + skin; named for its resemblance to the skin of an onion (thin and crinkly).

Related phrases

carbon copies

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.