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copy

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The result of gene or chromosomal duplication.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahpee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɑpi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The result of copying; an identical or nearly identical duplicate of an original.

  2. genetics

    The result of gene or chromosomal duplication.

  3. An imitation, sometimes of inferior quality.

  4. uncountable

    The text to be set into newspaper articles, magazine pages, or similar.

  5. A particular instance of a book: a single printed impression or digital file representing it.

  6. A schoolwork pad or workbook.

verb

  1. transitive

    To produce an object identical to a given object.

  2. transitive

    To imitate.

  3. Copy down as is

    “The students were made to copy the alphabet over and over.”

  4. transitive

    To give or transmit a copy to (a person).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The result of copying; an identical or nearly identical duplicate of an original.

Used this way, copy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use copy

  • “She made a copy of the designer dress.”noun
  • “The students were made to copy the alphabet over and over.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Text

copy editor

Copying

original copy

Particular

single copy

Other combinations

hard copycarbon copycopy numbertrue copy

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • copyingnounInflected form

    An act of copying.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • copy editornounCompound term

    An editor who prepares text for publication.

  • copy editingnounCompound term

    Putting something into a form suitable for a printer.

  • copy outverbCompound term

    Copy very carefully and as accurately as possible.

  • fair copynounCompound term

    A clean copy of a corrected draft.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • copywriternounRelated term

    A person employed to write advertising or publicity copy.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: result of copying

transcript

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.