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crepe paper

crepe paper

4 3.1
A thin, wrinkled colored paper used for making decorations and crafts
  • noun
  • /kreɪp ˈpeɪpər/
translation icon : papel crepé
  • I bought several rolls of crepe paper to make festive decorations for the party.
  • crepe paper streamers
  • crepe paper flowers
  • roll of crepe paper

Examples

  • Balloons had been tied to the trees and shrubs; the patio was decorated with Japanese lanterns, red carnations, and crepe paper.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • You can also buy crepe paper and tape it on the sides to diffuse the light.

    Blog text (19)
  • Hey, did you get the crepe paper?

  • In the Box task, subjects were given a small box and small pieces of crepe paper.

    Academic text (1995)
  • And you can put this together nicely with crepe paper and ribbon and stuff?

  • The mountain looked like it had been decorated with streamers of crepe paper.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • All the orange and black crepe paper streamers from the walls were also removed.

    Blog text (28)
  • The basement of St. Joseph's Church, the parish hall, was decorated with twisted yellow crepe paper.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The townspeople had decorated the hall lavishly with balloons, crepe paper, and an enormous banner that said, "Happy Birthday, Bill."

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Bright lights clicked on, and we could see limp pink and green crepe paper drifting from the rafters and the walls.

    Fiction book (1997)

Synonyms

paper
vscrepe paper
1.0

Thin material made from wood pulp used for writing, printing and wrapping

is the specific crinkled decorative form of that material
crepe
vscrepe paper
5 4.0

Thin crinkled paper used for party decorations like streamers

is the crinkled decorative sheet used also for crafts

How Crinkled

crepe paper
4 3.1
tissue paper
9 1.0
typewriter paper
  • Archaic
6.0

Surface Forms

crepe paper singular
crepe papers plural

Morphology

crepe + paper

The meaning of 'crepe paper' is directly derived from combining 'crepe' (thin, wrinkled decorative material) with 'paper' (sheet material); it denotes a type of paper characterized by a crepe texture. This simple type-of noun composition is cross-linguistically common and would be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Crepe paper comes from the French word crêpe, which means a thin, wrinkled cloth. People began calling thin, wrinkled paper crepe paper because its crinkled surface makes it easy to fold and decorate, so today crepe paper means 'paper used for decorations and crafts'.