# scroll

> English word · Noun · IPA /skɹoʊl/ · frequency rank #8,854

## Definitions
1. A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
2. An ornament formed of undulations giving off spirals or sprays, usually suggestive of plant form. Roman architectural ornament is largely of some scroll pattern.
3. Spirals or sprays in the shape of an actual plant.
4. A mark or flourish added to a person's signature, intended to represent a seal, and in some States allowed as a substitute for a seal. [U.S.] Alexander Mansfield Burrill.
5. The carved end of a violin, viola, cello or other stringed instrument, most commonly scroll-shaped but occasionally in the form of a human or animal head.
6. A skew surface.
7. A kind of sweet roll baked in a somewhat spiral shape.
8. The incremental movement of graphics on a screen, removing one portion to show the next.
9. A spiral waterway placed round a turbine to regulate the flow.
10. A turbinate bone.
11. A rough draft of anything.
12. The act of scrolling

## Etymology
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.

## Easily confused with
- **Stoll** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scroll-vs-stoll)
- **stroll** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scroll-vs-stroll)
- **shrill** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scroll-vs-shrill)
- **scrolled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scroll-vs-scrolled)
- **scold** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/scold-vs-scroll)
- **school** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/school-vs-scroll)

## Common misspellings (8)
`csroll`, `sccroll`, `scorll`, `scrlol`, `scrol`, `scrroll`, `srcoll`, `sscroll`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/scroll