Copyleft

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code. uncountable, usually

    "They believe in copyleft because they want their software to be used freely by anyone."

  2. 2
    A software license that follows this philosophy. uncountable, usually

    "I have placed my program under copyleft."

Verb
  1. 1
    To license under a copyleft license. transitive

    "Linus Torvalds copylefted the Linux kernel."

Synonyms

All synonyms
copyleftistcopyleftist

Example

More examples

"They believe in copyleft because they want their software to be used freely by anyone."

Etymology

A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

Related phrases

copyleft symbolstrong copyleftweak copyleftsource code

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.