Standard Lemma guide

cardboard

adj · noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈkɑːdbɔːd/
  • US: /ˈkɑɹdˌbɔɹd/
  • US: /ˈkɑɹˌbɔɹd/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)dbɔː(ɹ)d
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 R D B AO2 R D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Made of or resembling cardboard.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Flat or flavorless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Something flat or insubstantial.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

Synonym of African nutmeg (“Pycnanthus angolensis”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: African nutmeg

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

without substance

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • cardboard caricatures of historical figures

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: unlifelike

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

a stiff moderately thick paper

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: composition board

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: paper, packing material, packing, wadding

Narrower terms: binder's board, binder board, card, corrugated board, corrugated cardboard, paperboard, poster board, posterboard, pasteboard, strawboard

History

Etymology

From card + board.

Across languages

Translations

111 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Arabic: كَرْتُون (kartūn) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Arabic: وَرَق مُقَوَّى (waraq muqawwā) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Armenian: ստվարաթուղթ (stvaratʻuġtʻ) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Armenian: կարտոն (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Asturian: cartón — material resembling heavy paper
  • Azerbaijani: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Bashkir: ҡатырға (qatırğa) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Belarusian: карто́н (kartón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Belarusian: кардо́н (kardón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Bengali: পিচবোর্ড (picobōrḍo) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Bulgarian: карто́н (kartón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Burmese: စက္ဏူထူ (caknuhtu) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Catalan: cartró — material resembling heavy paper
  • Chinese Cantonese: 紙皮 /纸皮 (zi2 pei4) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Chinese Mandarin: 紙板 /纸板 (zhǐbǎn) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Chinese Mandarin: 硬紙板 /硬纸板 (yìngzhǐbǎn) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Czech: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Danish: pap — material resembling heavy paper
  • Danish: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Dutch: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Dzongkha: ཤོག་པང (shog pang) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Esperanto: kartono — material resembling heavy paper
  • Estonian: papp — material resembling heavy paper
  • Estonian: kartong — material resembling heavy paper
  • Faroese: papp — material resembling heavy paper
  • Finnish: pahvi — material resembling heavy paper
  • Finnish: kartonki — material resembling heavy paper
  • French: carton — material resembling heavy paper
  • West-Frisian: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Galician: cartón — material resembling heavy paper
  • Georgian: კარტონი (ḳarṭoni) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Georgian: მუყაო (muq̇ao) — material resembling heavy paper
  • German: Karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • German: Pappe — material resembling heavy paper
  • Greek: χαρτόνι (chartóni) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Haitian Creole: katon — material resembling heavy paper
  • Hebrew: קַרְטוֹן (kartón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Hindi: गत्ता (gattā) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Hungarian: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Icelandic: pappi — material resembling heavy paper
  • Ido: kartono — material resembling heavy paper
  • Indonesian: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Ingrian: papka — material resembling heavy paper
  • Irish: cairtchlár — material resembling heavy paper
  • Italian: cartone — material resembling heavy paper
  • Japanese: 段ボール (danbōru) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Japanese: 厚紙 (atsugami) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Japanese: 板紙 (itagami) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Kabuverdianu: papelon — material resembling heavy paper
  • Kazakh: картон (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Khmer: ការតុង (kaatong) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Korean: 판지 (panji) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Kyrgyz: картон (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Lao: ກະດາດແຂງ (ka dāt khǣng) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Latvian: kartons — material resembling heavy paper
  • Lithuanian: kartonas — material resembling heavy paper
  • Luxembourgish: Kartrong — material resembling heavy paper
  • Macedonian: картон (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Malay: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Malay: kadbod — material resembling heavy paper
  • Malayalam: കാർഡ്ബോർഡ് (kāṟḍbōṟḍŭ) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Māori: pepamārō — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: картон (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: хатуу цаас (xatuu caas) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: цаасан хавтас (caasan xavtas) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: ᠺᠠᠷᠲ᠋ᠣᠨ (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠲᠠᠭᠤ ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠰᠤ (qatagu čaɣasu) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠭᠠᠰᠤᠨ ᠬᠠᠪᠲᠠᠰᠤ (čaɣasun qabtasu) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Navajo: naaltsoos ntłʼizí — material resembling heavy paper
  • Norwegian Bokmål: papp — material resembling heavy paper
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: papp — material resembling heavy paper
  • Pashto: مقوا (moqawā) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Iranian Persian: کارْتُن (kârton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Iranian Persian: مُقَوَّا (moġavvâ) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Polish: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Polish: tektura — material resembling heavy paper
  • Portuguese: papelão — material resembling heavy paper
  • Romanian: carton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Romanian: mucava — material resembling heavy paper
  • Russian: карто́н (kartón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Scottish Gaelic: cairt-bhòrd — material resembling heavy paper
  • Serbo-Croatian: ка̀рто̄н — material resembling heavy paper
  • Serbo-Croatian: kàrtōn — material resembling heavy paper
  • Slovak: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Slovene: lepenka — material resembling heavy paper
  • Slovene: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Spanish: cartón — material resembling heavy paper
  • Spanish: cartulina — material resembling heavy paper
  • Spanish: chapadur — material resembling heavy paper
  • Swedish: kartong — material resembling heavy paper
  • Swedish: papp — material resembling heavy paper
  • Tajik: картон (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Tamil: அட்டை (aṭṭai) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Tatar: катырга (qatırğa) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Tatar: картон (qarton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Thai: กระดาษแข็ง (grà-dàat-kɛ̌ng) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Tibetan: ཤོག་པང (shog pang) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Turkish: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Turkish: mukavva — material resembling heavy paper
  • Turkmen: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Ukrainian: карто́н (kartón) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Unami: chinkalsit pampil — material resembling heavy paper
  • Urdu: گَتّا (gattā) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Uyghur: كارتون (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
  • Uzbek: karton — material resembling heavy paper
  • Vietnamese: các tông — material resembling heavy paper
  • Vietnamese: bìa cứng — material resembling heavy paper
  • Vietnamese: giấy bồi — material resembling heavy paper
  • Welsh: cardbord — material resembling heavy paper
  • Yiddish: קאַרטאָן (karton) — material resembling heavy paper
Real reading context

cardboard in complete knowledge articles