celluloid
celluloid Lexical Profile
celluloid Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Relating to, recorded on, or characteristic of motion-picture film or the cinema.
"The festival celebrated the director's greatest celluloid masterpieces from the golden age of Hollywood."
Made of or consisting of celluloid plastic.
"The vintage shop sold antique celluloid dolls and decorative hair combs from the early twentieth century."
• noun
A transparent, flammable synthetic plastic made from nitrocellulose and camphor, formerly widely used for photographic film and everyday household articles.
"Before modern safety plastics were invented, table tennis balls and guitar picks were commonly manufactured from celluloid."
Motion-picture film or the medium of cinema collectively.
"Several of the novelist's most famous detective stories were eventually immortalized on celluloid."
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in 1870 as a trademark by American inventor John Wesley Hyatt, combining 'cellulose' (from Latin 'cellula', meaning 'little cell') with the suffix '-oid' (meaning 'resembling').