Word.ws English Dictionary

onionskin

onionskin noun: a thin, strong, light, translucent paper; used especially for making carbon copies.

Noun

onionskin (countable and uncountable, plural onionskins)

  1. A thin, strong, light, translucent paper; used especially for making carbon copies.
    • I heard the dry-leaf rustle of onionskin papers.1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 406
    Synonyms:
    onion paper
  2. A kind of marble with swirls of color on the outside.

onionskin meaning in Urdu

onionskin in Urdu

باریک کاغذ

Synonyms of onionskin

Forms of onionskin

pluralonionskins
alternative formonion skin

Origin of onionskin

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

Questions about onionskin

What does onionskin mean?
Onionskin means a thin, strong, light, translucent paper; used especially for making carbon copies.
What is onionskin in Urdu?
Onionskin in Urdu is باریک کاغذ. See Onionskin meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is onionskin?
Onionskin is a noun.
What is the plural of onionskin?
The plural of onionskin is onionskins.

Words near onionskin in the dictionary

  1. onionless
  2. onionlike
  3. onions
  4. onionseed
  5. onionseeds
  6. onionskin
  7. onionskins
  8. oniontini
  9. oniontinis
  10. onionweed
  11. onionwood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: onionskin (page history and authors); onionskin (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-onionskin.wav.

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