as in hardcovers
a published work that has a thick paper cover
The store sells both paperbacks and hardcovers.
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Recent Examples of paperbacks
Amazon has become the leading self-publishing platform with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), software that allows an user to upload their manuscript and create purchasable e-books and paperbacks.
—
Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 27 Oct. 2025
When Catalina goes into the kitchen to refill her calabash, Frances grabs the box of Thompson paperbacks and makes a run for Ray at the restaurant.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2025
There are bookshelves teeming with dog-eared paperbacks, imposing hardbacks, critical anthologies, story collections, art books; my writer is also a reader, and a voracious one at that.
—Katie Da Cunha Lewin
september 26, Literary Hub, 26 Sep. 2025
The bar is stocked with wine and coffee, the walls are lined with books and the air is filled with the aroma of fresh paperbacks.
—Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2025
Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 27 Oct. 2025
When Catalina goes into the kitchen to refill her calabash, Frances grabs the box of Thompson paperbacks and makes a run for Ray at the restaurant.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2025
There are bookshelves teeming with dog-eared paperbacks, imposing hardbacks, critical anthologies, story collections, art books; my writer is also a reader, and a voracious one at that.
—Katie Da Cunha Lewin
september 26, Literary Hub, 26 Sep. 2025
The bar is stocked with wine and coffee, the walls are lined with books and the air is filled with the aroma of fresh paperbacks.
—Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for paperbacks
books
Noun
-
As a childless person who doesn’t teach I’ve been happily unaware that, due to standardized testing requirements that favor close reads of excerpts over whole books, there’s an entire generation of students who have very little contextual framework for the literature they’re being taught in school.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Nov. 2025
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Simply Winnie will debut June 2, 2026 and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.—
Rachel Raposas,
PEOPLE,
5 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Paperbacks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/paperbacks. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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