Word.ws English Dictionary

cardboard

UK/ˈkɑːdbɔːd//ˈkɑɹdˌbɔɹd/

cardboard noun: a wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.

cardboard: a wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs
Image: Lisa Risager from Denmark, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cardboard (countable and uncountable, plural cardboards)

  1. A wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.
  2. (figuratively) Something flat or insubstantial.
    • In my experience, one of the most vital times in the life of a piece of fiction is when a character begins to speak, timidly and softly, in one's head. Honest and true books get written when the author feels free to coax and invite that character in. If the author's response to that small voice is...1980 February 9, Andrea Loewenstein, “James Baldwin and His Critics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 10
    • According to these keyboard warriors, the young men and women who survived the shooting are part of a big hoax, are liars, are mere cardboard cutouts – “crisis actors” who roam the country looking for mass shootings from which to promote their anti-gun message – all being pushed forward by the...2018 February 21, Jeff Pearlman, “Parkland students, ignore the idiots”, in CNN
  3. Synonym of African nutmeg (“Pycnanthus angolensis”).
    Synonyms:
    African nutmeg

Adjective

cardboard

  1. Made of or resembling cardboard.
    • The thing really looked quite cardboard.1973, Journal of Black Poetry, number 17, page 27
    • MUMMER 3 pulls out an inflated cushion with a very cardboard crown on it.2001, Liz Lochead, “Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off”, in Cairns Craig, Randall Stevenson, editors, Twentieth-Century Scottish Drama, Edinburgh: Canongate Books, →ISBN, page 501
  2. (figuratively) Flat or flavorless.
    • The worst of the thing, however, is that the enormity, such as it is, happens to be of a very cardboard and tinsel character.1868, Arthur William A'Beckett, “Painted Ships and Painted Oceans”, in The Tomahawk, page 114
    • […]a conventional historical drama -- one of those event-crammed sagas featuring a beautiful, plucky heroine, a mysterious, elusive lover and a cardboard supporting cast of thousands.1999 November 2, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of The Times: A Single Girl Takes On the California Frontier”, in The New York Times (E section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...

cardboard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

cardboard in Hindi

material resembling heavy paper
गत्ता gattā

cardboard in Tamil

material resembling heavy paper
அட்டை aṭṭai

cardboard in Marathi

cardboard, pasteboard
पुठ्ठा puṭhṭhā

cardboard in Urdu

material resembling heavy paper
گَتّا gattā
More languagesFewer languages
cardboard in Bengali
পিচবোর্ড picobōrḍo
cardboard in Telugu
అట్ట aṭṭa
cardboard in Malayalam
കാർഡ്ബോർഡ് kāṟḍbōṟḍŭ
cardboard in Kannada
ರಟ್ಟು
cardboard in Punjabi
ਗੱਤਾ gattā
cardboard in Gujarati
કાર્ડબોર્ડ
cardboard in Odia
କାର୍ଡବୋର୍ଡ, କାର୍ଡବୋର୍ଡ଼, କାର୍ଡବୋର୍ଡ଼୍
cardboard in Assamese
ডাঠ বকলা dath bokola
cardboard in Nepali
कार्डबोर्ड, गत्ता
cardboard in Pashto
مقوا moqawā
cardboard in Arabic
كَرْتُون kartūn, وَرَق مُقَوَّى waraq muqawwā
cardboard in Malay
karton, kadbod
cardboard in Indonesian
karton
cardboard in Thai
กระดาษแข็ง grà-dàat-kɛ̌ng
cardboard in Vietnamese
các tông, bìa cứng, giấy bồi
cardboard in Myanmar
စက္ဏူထူ caknuhtu
Dzongkha
ཤོག་པང shog pang

Examples of cardboard in a sentence

  • I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.
  • The bartender Frisbeed a cardboard coaster to the patron at the end of the bar.
  • They used paper and cardboard to mock up the layout for the control panel.

All 40 example sentences with cardboard

Synonyms of cardboard

Forms of cardboard

pluralcardboards

Plural of cardboard: cardboards

Origin of cardboard

From card + board.

Words formed from cardboard

Phrases with cardboard

Questions about cardboard

What does cardboard mean?
Cardboard means a wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.
What is cardboard in Hindi?
Cardboard in Hindi is गत्ता (gattā). See Cardboard meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cardboard?
Cardboard can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce cardboard?
Cardboard is pronounced /ˈkɑːdbɔːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of cardboard?
The plural of cardboard is cardboards.

Words near cardboard in the dictionary

  1. Cardarelli
  2. Cardarellis
  3. Cardas
  4. cardbearer
  5. cardbearers
  6. cardboard
  7. cardboard box
  8. cardboard boxes
  9. cardboard cities
  10. cardboard city
  11. cardboard cut-out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cardboard (page history and authors); पुठ्ठा (Marathi) (page history and authors); అట్ట (Telugu) (page history and authors); cardboard (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਗੱਤਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); cardboard (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cardboard (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ডাঠ বকলা (Assamese) (page history and authors); cardboard (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cardboard.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cardboard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cardboard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.