Word.ws English Dictionary

copy-paste

copy-paste noun: the action of duplicating (text, an object, etc.) by copying it and later pasting somewhere else.

Noun

copy-paste (countable and uncountable, plural copy-pastes)

  1. The action of duplicating (text, an object, etc.) by copying it and later pasting somewhere else.
    • Paragraphs, images or diagrams are frequently assembled manually by copy-paste actions.2007, Katrien Herbert, Erik Duval, "Evaluating the ALOCOM Approach for Scalable Content Repurposing", Creating New Learning Experiences on a Global Scale (), Springer →ISBN, page 364
    • Optimizing your META Keywords field is remarkably easy, especially if you have just optimized your page titles. All you need to do is a simple copy-paste.2009, Stephen Woessner, The Small Business Owner's Handbook to Search Engine Optimization: Increase Your Google Rankings, Double Your Site Traffic... in Just 15-Steps - Guaranteed, Atlantic...
  2. (informal) Material incorporated into another work with minimal or no changes.
    • 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.2013, Ronald A Brand, D Wes Rist, The Export of Legal Education, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., →ISBN, page 101
  3. An idea, design, or action lacks originality, as if it was simply duplicated from somewhere else.
  4. A clone of something, figuratively or otherwise.

Verb

copy-paste (third-person singular simple present copy-pastes, present participle copy-pasting, simple past and past participle copy-pasted)

  1. (transitive) To copy (text, an object, etc.) and later paste it somewhere else.
    • It can be useful to copy-paste frames to transfer a sequence from the main timeline to the timeline of a clip symbol.2004, Corinne Hervo, Straight to the Point: Flash 5, Firewall Media, →ISBN

Adjective

copy-paste (comparative more copy-paste, superlative most copy-paste)

  1. (informal) Identical or very similar, as though copied and pasted.

copy-paste meaning in Arabic and Indonesian

copy-paste in Arabic

to copy and paste
نسخ ولصق

copy-paste in Indonesian

action of duplicating by copying and later pasting
salin tempel
material incorporated into another work with minimal or no changes
salinan tempel
to copy and paste
menyalin tempel

Forms of copy-paste

Noun
pluralcopy-pastes
alternative formcopy/paste
alternative formcopypaste
alternative formcopy and paste
alternative formcopy-and-paste
Verb
third-person singular presentcopy-pastes
present participlecopy-pasting
past participlecopy-pasted
pastcopy-pasted
Adjective
comparativemore copy-paste
superlativemost copy-paste

Words formed from copy-paste

Questions about copy-paste

What does copy-paste mean?
Copy-paste means the action of duplicating (text, an object, etc.) by copying it and later pasting somewhere else.
What is copy-paste in Arabic?
Copy-paste in Arabic is نسخ ولصق. See Copy-paste meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is copy-paste?
Copy-paste can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
What is the plural of copy-paste?
The plural of copy-paste is copy-pastes.

Words near copy-paste in the dictionary

  1. copy-edits
  2. copy-number variant
  3. copy-number variants
  4. copy-on-write proxies
  5. copy-on-write proxy
  6. copy-paste
  7. copy-pasteable
  8. copy-pasted
  9. copy-paster
  10. copy-pasters
  11. copy-pastes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: copy-paste (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-copy-paste.wav.

Cite this entry: “copy-paste.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/copy-paste. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.