scroll

/skɹəʊl/US/skɹoʊl/

scroll noun: a roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.

Image: Andrea Amati, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

scroll (plural scrolls)

A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
An ornament formed of undulations giving off spirals or sprays, usually suggestive of plant form. Roman architectural ornament is largely of some scroll pattern.
Spirals or sprays in the shape of an actual plant.
- I lose myself
  in a flawed henna plant
  jutting toward the scroll.
  Its rose-pink eyes burst
  off the stems.1985, Peter Balakian, “The Oriental Rug”, in Robert Pack, Jay Parini, editors, Introspections: American poets on one of their own poems, Hanover and London: University Press of New England for...
A mark or flourish added to a person's signature, intended to represent a seal, and in some States allowed as a substitute for a seal. [U.S.] Alexander Mansfield Burrill.
The carved end of a violin, viola, cello or other stringed instrument, most commonly scroll-shaped but occasionally in the form of a human or animal head.

Synonyms:

fiddlehead
A skew surface.
A kind of sweet roll baked in a somewhat spiral shape.
- I ordered a glass of lemonade and a coffee scroll.
The incremental movement of graphics on a screen, removing one portion to show the next.
- […] the computer sends orders, via electrical impulses, to recompose the liquid crystal structure inside the cells quickly which results in the familiar smooth scroll of the pointer on your screen.2005, Alberto de Lózar Muñoz, Liquid Crystal Dynamics: Defects, Walls and Gels, page 1
A spiral waterway placed round a turbine to regulate the flow.
A turbinate bone.
(obsolete) A rough draft of anything.
The act of scrolling.
- I gave the terms and conditions a quick scroll before signing up to the website.
- Silicon Valley’s dirtiest design feature – which is everywhere once you spot it – is the infinite scroll, likened to the “bottomless soup bowl” experiment, in which participants will keep mindlessly eating from a soup bowl if it keeps refilling.2024 December 9, Siân Boyle, “Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2026

Verb

scroll (third-person singular simple present scrolls, present participle scrolling, simple past and past participle scrolled)

(ambitransitive) To change one's view of data on a computer's display by moving in gradual increments, typically using an input device or touch screen.
- She scrolled the offending image out of view.
- She kept scrolling until she found the desired paragraph.
(intransitive) To move in or out of view horizontally or vertically.
- The rising credits slowly scrolled off the screen.
- The piano plays on. I watch those little rectangles as they scroll down from the top.2017, Patricia Taxxon, “Player Piano”, in Black and White
(intransitive) To continuously and aimlessly consume content on social media, especially on websites or apps with a scrolling feed, such as Instagram, TikTok, or X.
- With millions of creators worldwide, many of whom are generating income through brand partnerships, affiliate deals, and platform monetization, influencers are likely popping up any time you pick up a phone to scroll.2026 March 9, Cyrus Veyssi, “In Defense of Influencers”, in TIME, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2026
(Internet, dated, intransitive) To flood a chat system with numerous lines of text, causing legitimate messages to scroll out of view before they can be read.
- Hey, stop scrolling!
- It's cool but i know why I prefer newsgroups : I just got banned for scrolling or summat : i was typing one word in each message so pppl^([sic]) could read it cos it was going so fast - geez.1998, rOOth, “Brain's chat”, in alt.music.queen (Usenet)
(obsolete, transitive) To draft; to write in rough outline.

scroll meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

scroll in Hindi

roll of paper or parchment: पुस्तक pustak

scroll in Marathi

roll of paper or parchment: पट्टी paṭṭī, गुंडाळी guṇḍāḷī, सुरळी surḷī, लेखपट lekhpaṭ

scroll in Urdu

roll of paper or parchment: طُومار tūmār, پُسْتَک pustak

More languagesFewer languages

scroll in Bengali: পাকান
scroll in Telugu: స్క్రోల్ చేయండి, స్క్రోల్, స్క్రోల్ చెయ్యండి
scroll in Malayalam: കടലാസ് ചുരുൾ, ചുരുളുകളാക്കാൻ പാകത്തിൽ മുറിക്കുക, കടലാസുചുരുൾ, നക്കൽപട്ടിക
scroll in Kannada: ಓಲೆಸುರುಳಿ
scroll in Punjabi: ਸਕ੍ਰੌਲ ਕਰੋ, ਸਕ੍ਰੋਲ ਕਰੋ, ਸਕਰੋਲ ਕਰੋ
scroll in Gujarati: સ્ક્રોલ કરો, સ્ક્રોલ કરવા માટે, સ્ક્રોલ કરવા
scroll in Odia: ସ୍କ୍ରୋଲ କରନ୍ତୁ, ସ୍କ୍ରୋଲ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ସ୍କ୍ରଲ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ
scroll in Nepali: स्क्रोल गर्नुहोस्, स्क्रल गर्नुहोस्, स्क्रोल गर्न
scroll in Tagalog: balumbon
scroll in Arabic: طُومَار ṭūmār
scroll in Malay: selak
scroll in Indonesian: gulungan
scroll in Persian: طومار tumâr, کَراسِه karâse, فَروَردِه farvarde
scroll in Thai: ม้วนกระดาษ múuan grà-dàat
scroll in Vietnamese: cuộn, cuốn

Examples of scroll in a sentence

Use the stylus to scroll up and down the list or flip through the pages left and right.2008, “PDA”, in Cory in the House: Instruction Booklet, Burbank, California: Disney Interactive Studios; Nintendo, page 10:
He usually used it to scroll messages across his face.2011, Scott Sigler, The All-Pro, BookBaby:
Pavement scrolled beneath the headlight beams, reminding Emma of a conveyor belt.2018, Darrin Doyle, Scoundrels Among Us: Stories:
So do whatever you want—punt, scroll, tos, just turn AOL into a war zone!2003, Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of High-tech Crime and Crime-fighting, AOL Riot on June 1, 1998, page 21:

All 40 example sentences with scroll

Synonyms of scroll

fiddlehead

Forms of scroll

Noun
plural	scrolls
Verb
third-person singular present	scrolls
present participle	scrolling
past participle	scrolled
past	scrolled

Past tense of scroll: scrolled

Plural of scroll: scrolls

Origin of scroll

From Middle English scrowle, scrolle, from earlier scrowe, scrouwe (influenced by Middle English rolle), from Old French escroe, escrowe, escrouwe (“scroll, strip of parchment”), from Frankish *skrōda (“a shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō, from *skrew- (“to cut; cutting tool”), extension of *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Doublet of shred and escrow.

Words formed from scroll

Phrases with scroll

Words that rhyme with scroll

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scroll

What does scroll mean?: Scroll means a roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
What is scroll in Hindi?: Scroll in Hindi is पुस्तक (pustak). See Scroll meaning in Hindi.
How do you use scroll in a sentence?: Use the stylus to scroll up and down the list or flip through the pages left and right.
What part of speech is scroll?: Scroll can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scroll?: Scroll is pronounced /skɹəʊl/ (UK).
What is the plural of scroll?: The plural of scroll is scrolls.

Words near scroll in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: scroll (page history and authors); scroll (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scroll (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scroll (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scroll (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scroll (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scroll (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scroll (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scroll (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scroll (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: 2026-09-02

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

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