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I wanted to use the word centerfold to refer to a two-spread image I was creating in a magazine.

Generally when defining this word, most dictionaries seem to include an alternative meaning:

an illustration on the two middle pages of a magazine, typically a picture of a naked or scantily clad model [Google]

a picture (as of a nude) on a centerfold [Merriam-Webster]

a photograph of a woman or man in a nude or seminude pose appearing on a magazine centerfold. [Dictionary.com]

a large photograph that covers the two pages opposite each other in the middle of a magazine, usually of a young woman with few or no clothes on, or the person who appears in such a picture [Cambridge Dictionary]

Is there a similar word that does not have this "scantily clad woman" connotation?

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    Are you specifically referring to the two pages in the middle of the publication, or to any two facing pages? If the latter, then centerfold would be wrong, even apart from the connotations you are trying to avoid, and a two-page spread would probably be the clearest.
    – jsw29
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 15:08
  • I have been searching (without success) for a history of broadsheet newspapers to verify that at one time, they were opened flat on a table at the centre, which is where the main news was to be found. The obituaries and small-ads were on the back (the outside). I wondered if there was a name for this other than 'centrefold' which now only seems to mean something raunchy, if the synonyms are anything to go by.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 17:33
  • @WeatherVane This was certainly true of the British newspaper The Times. In fact the front (not the back) page of the The Times continued to print its classified adverts on the front page until 1966 when it started to follow what had been more general practice for a long time and put news on its front page. (see this Wikipedia entry). Whether it used to put its main news items on the centre two pages at that time I don't know. My family wasn't posh enough to take The Times when I was young.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 21:59
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    The UK version of centrefold is page 3.
    – Rayan Khan
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 4:35

3 Answers 3

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Centre spread is commonly used in publishing the the two-pages that belong to the same piece of paper and face each other.

Centre spread:

The two pages opposite each other in the middle of a newspaper or magazine, which usually deal only with one particular subject and include many pictures.

Example: Tomorrow's edition will include a centre spread on the Spanish royal family.

[Cambridge English Dictionary]

Or double-spread.

Double-spread:

An advertisement that covers two facing pages (as in a newspaper) — called also double-page spread.

[Merriam-Webster]

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Double truck: Double truck refers to a pair of facing pages, usually in a newspaper or magazine, with content that stretches over both pages.

In most newspapers and magazines, the booklet-like format is accomplished by folding large sheets of paper in half. This allows the pages to be opened like a book. Sometimes, usually only in magazines, the pages are stapled or stitched at the fold to hold the pages together.

[Wikipedia]

See Also

Double truck: a 2-page editorial or advertising layout (as in a newspaper) made up as a single unit

[Merriam-Webster]

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    I wanted to downvote this as being, intuitively to me, horribly unidiomatic. But in magazine domain-specific language, it seems very appropriate, so I upvoted it instead. As in an answer I provided to another question, I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 19:20
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    @ Jason Bassford, I agree - it's not my favorite term, but from pack when I worked in the print industry, it had frequent usage.
    – cactusknight
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 19:52
  • I never came across it in the UK. Unfortunately I can't remember what the British term was (if there was one at all), but I'm sure it wasn't this. It's geographically-limited as well as domain-specific. [Not that that makes it wrong or not useful, by any means; but it's worth pointing out for future visitors.]
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 8:34
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This is sometimes called a gatefold (M/W). Wordnik has:

A foldout, especially one that opens to double the page size.

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    A foldout or a gatefold is something different from a centrefold. A centrefold may be combined with a gatefold, but that is not a part of its definition.
    – jsw29
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 18:33
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    Gatefold isn't quite the right term here as it has at least one page that folds in so that you get the equivalent of a 3–4 page spread.
    – Donald Hosek
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 18:34

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