Sellotape

//ˈsɛləteɪp// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Adhesive tape. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A brand of adhesive tape (and similar products) similar to Scotch tape (US). Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, uncountable, usually
  3. 3
    transparent or semitransparent adhesive tape (trade names Scotch tape and Sellotape) used for sealing or attaching or mending wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To seal with adhesive tape. Australia, British, Ireland, New-Zealand, transitive

    "The door was slightly ajar, with a newspaper cartoon sellotaped to it:"

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of sellotape. alt-of

    "On one car he Sellotaped the ticket over the windscreen wiper."

  3. 3
    fasten or attach with sellotape wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
scotch tapesticky tapeadhesive tapeadhesive tapecellulose tapedurex

Example

More examples

"Sellotape is a useful tool for every arts and crafts hobbyist."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From genericized trademark Sellotape, from cello(phane) + tape. The spelling with S- was to avoid an existing trademark on the word Cellophane itself.

Etymology 2

Brand name, from cellophane tape. The first letter was changed to avoid infringing the then-extant trademark on cellophane.

Related phrases

adhesive tapescotch tapesticky tape

More for "sellotape"

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