wallpaper

1 of 2

noun

wall·​pa·​per ˈwȯl-ˌpā-pər 

1

: decorative paper for the walls of a room

2

: the background image or set of images displayed on a computer screen

After becoming a member, the user gets to design a homepage with his or her choice of pictures, music, wallpaper, writing, and information making each page unique.

—Fahiym Ratcliffe

wallpaper

2 of 2

verb

wallpapered; wallpapering; wallpapers

transitive verb

: to provide the walls of (a room) with wallpaper

intransitive verb

: to put wallpaper on a wall

Examples of wallpaper in a Sentence

Noun

The wallpaper began to peel.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

In 1912, Georges Braque (1882–1963) had glued strips of fake-wood wallpaper onto a pencil-and-gouache still life titled Fruit Dish and Glass, done in the Analytic Cubist style he’d developed with his colleague/competitor/collaborator Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). —Howard Halle, ARTnews.com, 10 Apr. 2026

Other signs include bubbles under paint or wallpaper, tight doors or windows and grooves or maze-like lines in wood. —Ana Durrani, USA Today, 9 Apr. 2026

Verb

Paint or wallpaper the shelves or choose shelving that comes in color. —Kelley Bruss, Dallas Morning News, 26 Mar. 2026

When the walls aren’t painted at all, but rather wallpapered, trim still shouldn’t be overlooked. —Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 24 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1827, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1918, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for wallpaper

• newspaper
• notepaper
• sandpaper
• skyscraper
• wastepaper
• caper
• paper
• raper
• scraper
• shaper
• taper
• vapor

Kids Definition

wallpaper

noun

wall·​pa·​per

ˈwȯl-ˌpā-pər

: decorative paper for covering the walls of a room

wallpaper verb