CARDBOARD Synonyms: 115 Similar and Opposite Words

cardboard

adjective

Definition of cardboard

as in ready-made

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of cardboard The packaging may still arrive in a box, but the business inside has moved far beyond the cardboard era. — Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025 Polos, walking home from the theatre late at night, still wearing his makeup, ashes in a cardboard urn in his backpack. — Anne Carson, New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2025 The cardboard Christmas houses, decorated with glitter, twigs, and other items, are said to have originated with the Moravians who once created decorative Christmas villages built around Christmas trees, generally as an extension of a nativity. — Nicole Letts, Southern Living, 26 Nov. 2024 Her family celebrated holidays in hotels with cardboard Christmas trees. — Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 6 June 2024 See All Example Sentences for cardboard

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cardboard

Adjective

The stand-in for Barton Cottage, a single-room house in southern Devon more suited to livestock than people, didn’t come quite so ready-made — or with a roof.

— Elaina Patton, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2026
Media days rarely offer insight, instead providing a stream of clichés ready-made for Nickelback’s next album.

— Troy Renck, Denver Post, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of ready-made

Adjective

Most conventional optical systems are designed around coherent light, such as laser beams, whose waves maintain a stable relationship with one another.

— Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2026
On Djerba Island, meanwhile, beaches and extensive resort infrastructure make combining an eclipse chase with a conventional Mediterranean vacation particularly easy — with a view of Mos Eisley thrown in for good measure.

— Jamie Carter, Space.com, 3 Nov. 2026

Definition of conventional

Adjective

Saturday’s performance had hints of Napier’s error-prone teams and unimaginative offenses.

— Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 31 Oct. 2026
But as the previous sentence demonstrates, these tics are hard to spot because they are often used by unimaginative humans, too.

— Benjamin Skuse, IEEE Spectrum, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of unimaginative

Adjective

Across the Atlantic, Britain is telling families to keep canned food, bottled water and cash on hand to get through three days of disruption.

— Bilin Lin, Fortune, 26 Oct. 2026
Butternut squash works as a stand-in for canned pumpkin too, since the squash varieties used in most US brands are closer to butternut than to carving pumpkins.

— Lauren Schuster, Charlotte Observer, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of canned

Adjective

Summary Leaders are increasingly sounding generic, often using similar buzzwords, a trend exacerbated by AI's ability to generate competent but unoriginal communication.

— Cheryl Robinson, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026
No moral panic is more unoriginal than the fear that contemporary men are no longer as manly as the heroes who preceded them.

— Elizabeth Dray, STAT, 21 July 2026

Definition of unoriginal

Adjective

Using techniques like input-dependent computation and gating, the liquid AI design gives us substantially greater power to access the human-like cognition, albeit imitative, of the machines.

— John Werner, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Since then, whenever new tools to crank out communications have become available, somebody has flooded the zone with the fastest, most imitative material that could garner attention.

— Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 8 Nov. 2025

Definition of imitative

Adjective

Anthropic’s actions allow users to create derivative songs without paying the copyright holders, the lawsuit says.

— James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2026
The series, which has been remade in dozens of countries, is derivative of other reality-competition shows.

— Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of derivative

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card

cardboard

cardboardy

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“Cardboard.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cardboard. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of cardboard

adjective

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