Did you know?


copy - definition and synonyms


What are red words?





verb copy pronunciation in British English /ˈkɒpi/
Word Forms
present tense
present participlecopying
past tensecopied
past participlecopied
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  1. 1
    [transitive] to make a copy that is the same as the original thing
    They were charged with illegally copying videotapes.
    Changes can occur when DNA is copied from one cell to another.
    1. a.
      [intransitive/transitive] to make a copy of a piece of information by writing it somewhere
      Just copy what’s in the book.
      copy from: The students spent the whole lesson copying from the blackboard.
      copy something into something: He copied the number into his notebook.
    2. b.
      [transitive] to make a photocopy
      I copied the letter and kept the original.
    3. c.
      [transitive] to make a copy of a piece of computer data, such as a piece of writing or a program
      Use the mouse to highlight the text you want to copy.
      copy something over/across/to/onto: To install, first copy the setup file onto your hard drive.
  2. 2
    [transitive] to do something in the same way as someone else
    The instructor does exercises that you can copy while you watch.
    Children learn by copying their parents.
  3. 3
    [transitive] to take someone elses ideas or methods and use them
    Their style of music was copied by a lot of other bands.
  4. 4
    [transitive] to deliberately make something that looks exactly like something else
    She had painstakingly copied an 18th-century painting.



BuzzWord Article

Open Dictionary

troll factory


add a word



global English and language change from our blog