PAPYRUS (papyri)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: papyri   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does papyrus mean? 

• PAPYRUS (noun)
  The noun PAPYRUS has 3 senses:

1. paper made from the papyrus plant by cutting it in strips and pressing it flat; used by ancient Egyptians and Greeks and Romans

2. tall sedge of the Nile valley yielding fiber that served many purposes in historic times

3. a document written on papyrus

  Familiarity information: PAPYRUS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAPYRUS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Paper made from the papyrus plant by cutting it in strips and pressing it flat; used by ancient Egyptians and Greeks and Romans

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("papyrus" is a kind of...):

paper (a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tall sedge of the Nile valley yielding fiber that served many purposes in historic times

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Cyperus papyrus; Egyptian paper reed; Egyptian paper rush; paper plant; paper rush; papyrus

Hypernyms ("papyrus" is a kind of...):

sedge (grasslike or rushlike plant growing in wet places having solid stems, narrow grasslike leaves and spikelets of inconspicuous flowers)

Holonyms ("papyrus" is a member of...):

Cyperus; genus Cyperus (type genus of Cyperaceae; grasslike rhizomatous herbs; cosmopolitan except very cold regions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A document written on papyrus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("papyrus" is a kind of...):

document; papers; written document (writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature))

 Context examples 

The researchers examined contemporary written sources, inscriptions, coinage, papyrus documents, pollen samples, plague genomes and mortuary archaeology.

(Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?, National Science Foundation)