cellophane
part of speech
noun (cellophane — uncountable; a cellophane wrapper)
meaning for a pupil
1) A thin, clear, shiny sheet material that is used for wrapping things such as flowers, sweets, gifts and food. tree →
2) Coloured cellophane: thin see-through sheets in bright colours used in crafts, for example to make stained-glass windows or coloured lenses. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life cellophane is the crinkly see-through wrapping around a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates or a gift basket. In science lessons it is an example of a transparent material: light passes through it, and coloured cellophane lets only some colours through, so looking through red cellophane makes the world look red. In art and craft it is used for lanterns, windows and filters. Cellophane is made from cellulose, the stuff of plant cell walls, usually from wood pulp. Phrases: «wrapped in cellophane», «a cellophane wrapper», «red cellophane».
examples
- The roses came wrapped in shiny cellophane. tree →
- Mum tore the cellophane off the new box of crayons. tree →
- We made a lantern with orange cellophane over the holes. tree →
- Look through the blue cellophane and everything turns blue. tree →
- Cellophane is transparent, so light can pass through it. tree →
- The sweets were twisted up in little cellophane wrappers. tree →
- The cellophane crackled when I squeezed the parcel. tree →
- Our class made stained-glass windows from black card and coloured cellophane. tree →
note
Usually uncountable: «some cellophane», «a sheet of cellophane», not «a cellophane» (but «a cellophane wrapper/bag» is fine). Trap: people often call any clear plastic wrap «cellophane», but true cellophane is made from wood cellulose, not from oil like most plastic film and cling film; real cellophane can rot away (biodegrade) much more easily than plastic. It began as a trade name in the early 1900s. Say: SEL-uh-fayn.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cellophane» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.