microfilm

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mey-der.?

Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós)

Ancient Greek μῑκρο- (mīkro-)lbor.

English micro-

Proto-Indo-European *pel-der.

Proto-Germanic *felma-

Proto-Germanic *filmīn-

Old English filmen

Middle English filme

English film

English microfilm

From micro- + film.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

microfilm (countable and uncountable, plural microfilms)

1. A continuous roll of film containing photographs of documents at a greatly reduced size.
   • 2022, Hernan Diaz, Trust, Picador (2023), pages 200-201:

     This detail made it easier, decades later, when I was browsing through reels of microfilms of The New York Times, to establish that morning’s date.

Derived terms

• microfilmable
• microfilmer

Translations

roll of film

• Catalan: microfilm (ca) m
• Czech: mikrofilm m
• Danish: mikrofilm
• Dutch: microfilm (nl) m
• Faroese: erfilmur m, mikrofilmur m
• Finnish: mikrofilmi
• German: Mikrofilm (de) m
• Greek: μικροφίλμ (el) n (mikrofílm)
• Hungarian: mikrofilm (hu)
• Icelandic: örfilma f
• Indonesian: mikrofilm (id)
• Irish: micreascannán m
• Italian: microfilm (it) m
• Macedonian: ми́крофилм m (míkrofilm)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mikrofilm

  Nynorsk: mikrofilm

• Polish: mikrofilm (pl) m inan
• Russian: микрофи́льм (ru) m (mikrofílʹm)
• Spanish: microfilm m
• Swedish: mikrofilm (sv) c
• Vietnamese: vi phim
• Yiddish: מיקראָפֿילם m (mikrofilm)

Further reading

• microfilm on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

microfilm (third-person singular simple present microfilms, present participle microfilming, simple past and past participle microfilmed)

1. (transitive) To reproduce (documents) on such film.
   • 1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, pages 48–49:

     Power set up a camera in the British Museum and eventually microfilmed many pre-1640 English books that he selected from Pollard and Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (STC) and other important works in the museum’s collections.

Translations

reproduce documents on microfilm

• Catalan: microfilmar (ca)
• Dutch: microfilmen
• Finnish: mikrofilmata (fi)
• German: auf Mikrofilm sichern, auf Mikrofilm speichern
• Greek: αναπαράγω στο μικροφίλμ (anaparágo sto mikrofílm)
• Irish: cuir ar mhicreascannán
• Polish: nagrywać na mikrofilmie impf, nagrać na mikrofilmie pf
• Spanish: microfilmar (es)
• Swedish: mikrofilma

See also

• microfiche

French

Etymology

From micro- +‎ film.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.kʁɔ.film/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

microfilm m (plural microfilms)

1. microfilm

Further reading

• “microfilm”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English microfilm.

Noun

microfilm m (invariable)

1. microfilm

Derived terms

• lettore di microfilm (“microfilm reader”)

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

French micro-

Proto-Indo-European *pel-der.

Proto-Germanic *felma-

Proto-Germanic *filmīn-

Old English filmen

Middle English filme

English filmbor.

French film

French microfilmbor.

German Mikrofilmbor.

Romanian microfilm

Borrowed from French microfilm or German Mikrofilm. By surface analysis, micro- + film.

Noun

microfilm n (plural microfilme)

1. microfilm

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	microfilm	microfilmul	microfilme	microfilmele
genitive-dative	microfilm	microfilmului	microfilme	microfilmelor
vocative	microfilmule		microfilmelor

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mey-der.?

Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós)

Ancient Greek μῑκρο- (mīkro-)lbor.

English micro-

Proto-Indo-European *pel-der.

Proto-Germanic *felma-

Proto-Germanic *filmīn-

Old English filmen

Middle English filme

English film

English microfilmbor.

Spanish microfilm

Borrowed from English microfilm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mikɾoˈfilm/ [mi.kɾoˈfilm]
• Rhymes: -ilm
• Syllabification: mi‧cro‧film

Noun

microfilm m (plural microfilms)

1. microfilm

Derived terms

• microfilmar

Further reading

• “microfilm”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025