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Paperback vs Cardboard - What's the difference?

paperback | cardboard |

As nouns the difference between paperback and cardboard

is that paperback is a book with flexible binding while cardboard is a wood-based material resembling heavy paper, used in the manufacture of boxes, cartons and signs.

As adjectives the difference between paperback and cardboard

is that paperback is having flexible binding while cardboard is made of or resembling cardboard.

paperback

English

(wikipedia paperback)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A book with flexible binding.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • (of a book) Having flexible binding.

    • Synonyms

    * paperbacked, paperbound, softcovered

    See also

    * hardback

    cardboard

    English

    (wikipedia cardboard)

    Noun

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

    • Derived terms

    * cardboard box * cardboard city * cardboard cut-out, cardboard cutout

    See also

    * paperboard

    Adjective

  • Made of or resembling cardboard.
  • * 1868 , Arthur William A'Beckett, "Painted Ships and Painted Oceans", The Tomahawk , page 114:
    • The worst of the thing, however, is that the enormity, such as it is, happens to be of a very cardboard and tinsel character.
  • * 1973 , Journal of Black Poetry , Issue 17, page 27:
    • The thing really looked quite cardboard .
  • * 2008 , Katya Hokanson, Writing at Russia's Border , page 122:
    • While Lensky’s character is quite cardboard , Onegin’s manipulations and lack of ability to call off the duel because he fears society’s jibes, Lensky’s youth and naivety, and Tatiana’s reaction to the duel lend the event its gravity.
  • * Twentieth-Century Scottish Drama , page 501:
    • MUMMER 3 pulls out an inflated cushion with a very cardboard crown on it.