Scroll Meaning
/skɹəʊl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
nounAn ornament formed of undulations giving off spirals or sprays, usually suggestive of plant form. Roman architectural ornament is largely of some scroll pattern.
Sentence Examples
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
The "scroll lock" key is not used anymore.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The archaeologist carefully unrolled the ancient ____ to read the inscriptions inside.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The archaeologist carefully unrolled the ancient ____ to reveal the text inside.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English scrowle, scrolle, from earlier scrowe, scrouwe (influenced by Middle English rolle), from Old French escroe, escrowe, escrouwe (“scroll, strip of parchment”), from Frankish *skrōda (“a shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō, from *skrew- (“to cut; cutting tool”), extension of *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Doublet of shred and escrow.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I lose myself
in a flawed henna plant
jutting toward the scroll.
Its rose-pink eyes burst
off the stems."
— 1985, Peter Balakian, “The Oriental Rug”, in Robert Pack, Jay Parini, editors, Introspections: American poets on one of their own poems, Hanover and London: University Press of New England for Middlebury College Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 31:
"[…] the computer sends orders, via electrical impulses, to recompose the liquid crystal structure inside the cells quickly which results in the familiar smooth scroll of the pointer on your screen."
— 2005, Alberto de Lózar Muñoz, Liquid Crystal Dynamics: Defects, Walls and Gels, page 1:
"Silicon Valley’s dirtiest design feature – which is everywhere once you spot it – is the infinite scroll, likened to the “bottomless soup bowl” experiment, in which participants will keep mindlessly eating from a soup bowl if it keeps refilling."
— 2024 December 9, Siân Boyle, “Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2026:
"Use the stylus to scroll up and down the list or flip through the pages left and right."
— 2008, “PDA”, in Cory in the House: Instruction Booklet, Burbank, California: Disney Interactive Studios; Nintendo, page 10:
"The piano plays on. I watch those little rectangles as they scroll down from the top."
— 2017, Patricia Taxxon, “Player Piano”, in Black and White:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The archaeologist carefully unrolled the ancient ____ to read the inscriptions inside.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The archaeologist carefully unrolled the ancient ____ to reveal the text inside.