Word.ws English Dictionary

parchment

Syllables: parch·ment/ˈpɑːtʃmənt//ˈpʰɑɹt͡ʃmənt/

parchment noun: material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing.

Noun

parchment (countable and uncountable, plural parchments)

  1. Material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing.
    • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
    • Never found Hattie and they never found the shack
      Never made the trip back in
      There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
      Said: Don't come lookin' again.1973, “Swamp Witch”, in Jim Stafford (lyrics), Jim Stafford, performed by Jim Stafford
  2. A document made on such material.
  3. A diploma (traditionally written on parchment).
  4. Stiff paper imitating that material.
  5. The creamy to tanned color of parchment.
  6. The envelope of the coffee grains, inside the pulp.

Proper noun capitalized: Parchment

Parchment (countable and uncountable, plural Parchments)

  1. A surname.
  2. A city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States.

parchment meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

parchment in Hindi

material
चर्मपत्र carmapatra

parchment in Tamil

காகிதத்தோல்

parchment in Urdu

parchment
چرم carm

parchment in Bengali

পার্চমেন্ট, চর্মলিপি
More languagesFewer languages
parchment in Malayalam
ചർമ്മപത്രം, ചർമ്മപടം, ഇതിൽ എഴുതിയത്, തോല്ക്കടലാസ്
parchment in Kannada
ಚರ್ಮಕಾಗದ, ತೊಗಲುಹಾಳೆ
parchment in Arabic
رَقّ raqq
parchment in Malay
kertas kulit
parchment in Indonesian
perkamen
parchment in Persian
کَراسِه karâse, کاغَذ پوست kâġaz-e pust, رَقّ raqq
parchment in Thai
กระดาษหนัง
parchment in Vietnamese
giấy da

Examples of parchment in a sentence

  • His parchment skin eerily displayed a blood-red nervation.
  • "Gamboling, sashaying, waving the parchment — bathed in the ever-blondening halo of our father's sweet deathbed blessing."
  • One arm displays a parchment sheet, on which are these words, "THE BILL OF RIGHTS".

All 19 example sentences with parchment

Synonyms of parchment

All synonyms of parchment

Forms of parchment

Noun
pluralparchments
Proper noun
pluralParchments

Plural of parchment: parchments

Origin of parchment

From Middle English parchemyn, parchement, from Old French parchemin, via Latin pergamīna, from Ancient Greek Περγαμηνός (Pergamēnós, “of Pergamon”), which is named for the ancient city of Pergamon (modern Bergama) in Asia Minor, where it was invented as an expensive alternative for papyrus. Cognate with Danish pergament, Dutch perkament, French parchemin, German Pergament, Greek περγαμηνή (pergaminí), Italian pergamena, Norwegian pergament, Portuguese pergaminho, Galician pergameo, Romanian pergament, Russian пергамент (pergament), Spanish pergamino, and Swedish pergament.

Words formed from parchment

Phrases with parchment

Questions about parchment

What does parchment mean?
Parchment means material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing.
What is parchment in Hindi?
Parchment in Hindi is चर्मपत्र (carmapatra). See Parchment meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is parchment?
Parchment can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce parchment?
Parchment is pronounced /ˈpɑːtʃmənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of parchment?
The plural of parchment is parchments.

Words near parchment in the dictionary

  1. parchingly
  2. parchings
  3. parchisi
  4. Parchman
  5. Parchmans
  6. parchment
  7. parchment paper
  8. parchment papers
  9. parchment worm
  10. parchmental
  11. parchmented

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: parchment (page history and authors); Parchment (page history and authors); parchment (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); چرم (Urdu) (page history and authors); Parchment (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parchment (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parchment (Kannada 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-parchment.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-parchment.wav.

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