copyedit
Americanverb (used with object)
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copyedits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
copyedited,
past participle, past
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copyediting
present participle
-
to edit (a manuscript, document, text, etc.) for publication, especially for punctuation, spelling, grammatical structure, style, etc.
-
to copyread.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
copyeditsimple
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copyeditssimple
-
have copyeditedperfect
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has copyeditedperfect
-
am copyeditingprogressive
-
are copyeditingprogressive
-
is copyeditingprogressive
-
have been copyeditingperfect progressive
-
has been copyeditingperfect progressive
Past
-
copyeditedsimple
-
had copyeditedperfect
-
was copyeditingprogressive
-
were copyeditingprogressive
-
had been copyeditingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of copyedit
First recorded in 1950–55; back formation from copy editor ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Krantz would expertly copyedit all of McCarthy’s books for Random House.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
I’m in the middle of a copyedit right now, and during the copyedit stage, I read it aloud.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2017
I also pay an editor out of pocket to do an edit between my editor’s edit and the copyedit.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2017
It was in final copyedit when Judge Scalia died.
From Slate ● Mar. 23, 2017
I never saw a copyedit, and I never noticed the mistake until about two weeks ago, long after the damage was done.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2010
Christi runs the department that copyedits and fact-checks everything we publish, keeps our schedules and deadlines, handles corrections, manages our relationships with our printers, and makes sure every page is of the highest quality.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 15, 2022
My copyedits will be due soon, I tell him, asking for notes on what he’d like to change, fact-check, discuss.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2018
One stack of papers was a copyedited manuscript—basically a printout from a computer file that had been marked up in colored pencil with a bunch of edit marks.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
At the copyediting stage, Bertha Krantz discovered many remaining inconsistencies in punctuation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Half a lifetime ago, I had a crappy copyediting job that meant I had to drive for 90 minutes through traffic across the sprawling concrete wasteland of Phoenix.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026
"However good copyediting, like writing, takes time because you need to think and not curate like AI, which also doesn't understand nuance well because it's curating the data."
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2025
Everyone was copyediting from whatever location they were at.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2020
Her job bored her: she did the same bland things, writing press releases, editing press releases, copyediting press releases, her movements rote and numbing.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
