n.
- A colorless flammable material made from nitrocellulose and camphor and used to make photographic film.
- Motion-picture film: "a strange, anachronistic sight: theater pieces transferred to celluloid" (David Ansen).
- The cinema; motion pictures: "There are no heroes but in celluloid" (Charles Langbridge Morgan).
- Made of or using a material made from nitrocellulose and camphor.
- Of or portrayed on film or in motion pictures.
- Artificial; synthetic: a novel with flat, celluloid characters.
[Originally a trademark.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.