Word.ws English Dictionary

paraph

Syllables: par·aph/ˈpaɹəf/US/ˈpɛrəf/

paraph noun: a flourish made after or below one's signature, originally to prevent forgery.

Noun

paraph (plural paraphs)

  1. A flourish made after or below one's signature, originally to prevent forgery.
    Synonyms:
    flourish
  2. A mark used by medieval rubricators to indicate textual division.
    • Commencing with a C-shaped paraph-sign in the same brown ink, the glosses are linked to their corresponding passages by alphabetic signs comprising single letters in a sequence beginning with a in each margin, moving on to b, c, and d down the page, and, ideally, linking with the same letter in the...2016 October 3, “It’s A Wrap”, in Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Verb

paraph (third-person singular simple present paraphs, present participle paraphing, simple past and past participle paraphed)

  1. (transitive) To add a paraph to; to sign, especially with one's initials.

Synonyms of paraph

Forms of paraph

Noun
pluralparaphs
Verb
third-person singular presentparaphs
present participleparaphing
past participleparaphed
pastparaphed

Origin of paraph

Inherited from Middle English paraf, from Medieval Latin paraffus or its etymon Middle French paraphe, paraffe, shortening of paragraphe, from Ancient Greek παράγραφος (parágraphos).

Questions about paraph

What does paraph mean?
Paraph means a flourish made after or below one's signature, originally to prevent forgery.
What part of speech is paraph?
Paraph can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce paraph?
Paraph is pronounced /ˈpaɹəf/ (UK).
What is the plural of paraph?
The plural of paraph is paraphs.

Words near paraph in the dictionary

  1. parapeted
  2. parapetless
  3. parapetlike
  4. parapets
  5. parapetted
  6. paraph
  7. paraphalangeal
  8. parapharingeal
  9. parapharmaceutical
  10. parapharmaceuticals
  11. parapharmacy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paraph (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:

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