Parchment
name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing. countable, uncountable
"At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs."
- 2 skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on wordnet
- 3 A document made on such material. countable, uncountable
- 4 a superior paper resembling sheepskin wordnet
- 5 A diploma (traditionally written on parchment). countable, uncountable
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- 6 Stiff paper imitating that material. countable, uncountable
- 7 The creamy to tanned color of parchment. countable, uncountable
- 8 The envelope of the coffee grains, inside the pulp. countable, uncountable
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Swallows fill the parchment of the sky with signatures in honor of the good weather."
Etymology
From Middle English parchemyn, parchement, from Old French parchemin, via Latin pergamīna, from Ancient Greek Περγαμηνός (Pergamēnós, “of Pergamon”), which is named for the ancient city of Pergamon (modern Bergama) in Asia Minor, where it was invented as an expensive alternative for papyrus. Cognate with Danish pergament, Dutch perkament, French parchemin, German Pergament, Greek περγαμηνή (pergaminí), Italian pergamena, Norwegian pergament, Portuguese pergaminho, Galician pergameo, Romanian pergament, Russian пергамент (pergament), Spanish pergamino, and Swedish pergament.
Related phrases
More for "parchment"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.