pamphlet

[ pam-flit ]

noun

1. a complete publication of generally less than 80 pages stitched or stapled together and usually having a paper cover.
2. a short treatise or essay, generally a controversial tract, on some subject of contemporary interest:

   a political pamphlet.

pamphlet

/ ˈpæmflɪt /

noun

1. a brief publication generally having a paper cover; booklet
2. a brief treatise, often on a subject of current interest, published in pamphlet form

Other Words From

• pamphlet·ary adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pamphlet¹

1375–1425; late Middle English pamflet < Anglo-Latin panfletus, pamfletus, syncopated variant of Pamphiletus, diminutive of Medieval Latin Pamphilus, title of a 12th-century Latin comedy. See -et

Word History and Origins

Origin of pamphlet¹

C14 pamflet, from Anglo-Latin panfletus, from Medieval Latin Pamphilus title of a popular 12th-century amatory poem from Greek Pamphilos masculine proper name

Example Sentences

In addition to writing those seven articles for The News, Steinbeck had also written a short summary about the migrant situation that appeared in The Nation in mid-September 1936, and a pamphlet entitled “Their Blood Is Strong,” published by the Simon J. Lubin Society.

From Salon

Social workers were supposed to help her navigate these systems, but she said they “would give me a pamphlet and tell me how to grow a garden, how to budget my money better. Not very practical.”

From Salon

“Through this symbolic action, we want to warn the state and central governments that if they arrest the revolutionaries and the struggling people and keep them in jail, then we also know how to free them from jail in a Marxist revolutionary way,” one pamphlet said.

From BBC

In 1940, his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, published a pamphlet entitled ”The Wave of the Future: A Confession of Faith,” which quickly became a best-seller with the America First crowd.

From Salon

Judging by the excerpts shown in the ad, it is not at all clear whether Mike Huckabee’s pamphlet is capable of enlightening them.

From Slate

Related Words

• brochure
• bulletin
• flyer
• folder
• handout
• leaflet
• tract