Word.ws English Dictionary

copyedit

copyedit verb: to correct the spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. of printed material and prepare it for typesetting, printing, or online publishing.

Verb

copyedit (third-person singular simple present copyedits, present participle copyediting, simple past and past participle copyedited)

  1. (transitive) To correct the spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. of printed material and prepare it for typesetting, printing, or online publishing.
    • Memoirs of a Bastard Angel contains so many amazing howlers that it seems barely to have been copyedited or proofread.1990 April 28, Duncan Mitchell, “A Dazzling Parade Of Celebrity Names”, in Gay Community News, page 11
    Synonyms:
    subedit

Noun

copyedit (plural copyedits)

  1. The process or act of copyediting a document.
    • A copyedit is the final type of edit performed on documents.1996, Dorothy L. Cady, Bulletproof Documentation: Creating Quality Through Testing, page 89
    • The copyedit may be strictly mechanical or may include stylistic changes.2016, Leslie Vermeer, The Complete Canadian Book Editor, page 35
  2. The result of copyediting a document.
    • Your production editor will probably not contact you until the due date of the copyedit is established in-house.2006, Brian Fagan, Writing Archaeology: Telling Stories About the Past, page 129
  3. A single change to the text of a document that is an instance of copyediting.
    • For example, if the author is responsible for inserting the copyedits into the source files, then there are repercussions later on when changes are made during the page formatting stage.1991, TEX Users Group, TUGboat, volume 12, page 365
    • The copyedits in science.net — a game designed for middle school students — were somewhat less blunt, but they were supposed to retain the other salient features of the original.2012, Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire, Sasha Barab, Games, Learning, and Society: Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age, page 418

Synonyms of copyedit

Forms of copyedit

Verb
third-person singular presentcopyedits
present participlecopyediting
past participlecopyedited
pastcopyedited
alternative formcopy edit
alternative formcopy-edit
Noun
pluralcopyedits

Origin of copyedit

Back-formation from copy editor.

Words formed from copyedit

Questions about copyedit

What does copyedit mean?
Copyedit means to correct the spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. of printed material and prepare it for typesetting, printing, or online publishing.
What part of speech is copyedit?
Copyedit can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of copyedit?
The past tense of copyedit is copyedited.

Words near copyedit in the dictionary

  1. copycattery
  2. copycatting
  3. copydesk
  4. copydesks
  5. copydom
  6. copyedit
  7. copyedited
  8. copyediting
  9. copyeditor
  10. copyeditorial
  11. copyeditors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: copyedit (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: En-us-copyedit.oga.

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