carbon paper

Meaning

1. 1noununcountable

   thin dark paper with a special coating on one side, placed between two sheets so that writing on the top sheet is copied onto the bottom one.

   Grammar: No plural and no 'a' before it: use 'a piece of carbon paper' or 'two sheets of carbon paper'.

   Patterns

   • a sheet of carbon paper
   • put carbon paper between something
   • type something with carbon paper

   Before computers, secretaries put carbon paper between two sheets to make a copy of a letter.

   She slid a sheet of carbon paper under the form so the details would appear on both pages.

   The old receipt book still uses carbon paper, so the shop keeps a few packs in the drawer.

Common combinations

a sheet of carbon paper

He asked for a sheet of carbon paper to copy the invoice.

put carbon paper between

Put the carbon paper between the two pages, shiny side down.

carbon copy

The file is a carbon copy of the original report.

use carbon paper

Artists sometimes use carbon paper to transfer a drawing onto canvas.

Synonyms and how they differ

carbon

In office contexts 'carbon' alone can mean the same thing, as in 'a carbon of the letter', but it is shorter and more old-fashioned.

transfer paper

A broader term for paper that moves an image or writing to another surface; it fits art and craft settings better than office copying.

Word family

carbon copy noun

A copy made with carbon paper, or more generally an exact copy of something.

carbonless adjective

Describing paper that makes copies without carbon paper, as in carbonless receipt books.

Commonly confused: carbon paper or carbon dating?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “carbon paper”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words