Copy-paste
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The action of duplicating (text, an object, etc.) by copying it and later pasting somewhere else. countable, uncountable
"Paragraphs, images or diagrams are frequently assembled manually by copy-paste actions."
- 2 Material incorporated into another work with minimal or no changes. countable, informal, uncountable
"The interesting fact, however, is that the Regulation takes as a model, or better to say it is mostly a copy-paste of the text, of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods rather than being adjusted to the needs of Kosovo."
- 1 To copy (text, an object, etc.) and later paste it somewhere else. transitive
"It can be useful to copy-paste frames to transfer a sequence from the main timeline to the timeline of a clip symbol."
- 1 Identical or very similar, as though copied and pasted. informal
Example
More examples"Do not copy-paste sentences from elsewhere, except if the content is CC-BY compatible."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin cōps Latin -ia Latin cōpia Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin cōpiō Old French copierbor. Middle English copien English copy Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t-der. Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English paste English paste English copy-paste
Related phrases
More for "copy-paste"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.