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Showing results for photocopy. Search instead for photechy.
Synonyms

photocopy

American  
[foh-tuh-kop-ee] / ˈfoʊ təˌkɒp i /

noun

  • photocopies
    plural
  1. a photographic reproduction of a document, print, or the like.


verb (used with object)

  • photocopies,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • photocopied,
    past participle,  past
  • photocopying
    present participle
  1. to reproduce (a document, print, or the like) photographically.

photocopy British  
/ ˈfəʊtəʊˌkɒpɪ /

noun

  1. a photographic reproduction of written, printed, or graphic work See also microcopy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to reproduce (written, printed, or graphic work) on photographic material

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of photocopy

First recorded in 1920–25; photo- + copy


Vocabulary lists containing photocopy

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:

You can do so by identifying the official class-action settlement administrator from the photocopy of the check.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026

Down the sidewalk, I mailed packages for our boys at the pack-and-ship shop, and stopped to photocopy teaching materials for my weekly state-prison volunteering gig.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

But toward the end, a federal immigration official she had met with said he needed Marques May to follow him so he could photocopy her passport, he recalled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2025

Jean shoves a photocopy of an article from the Cook Islands News into my hand.

From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2024

But the photocopy machine was broken, so the woman behind the desk told Deborah and Cofield they’d have to come back later, once the machine was fixed.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

A simple way to imagine this is like making two photocopies of a document but accidentally placing both copies into the same folder instead of separating them.

From Science Daily ● May 25, 2026

"They can't even afford to make photocopies, never mind plane tickets and lodgings," said lawyer Valeria Carreras, who represents 34 families of victims.

From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026

By Smithsonian magazine’s tally, Americans got by with a mere 20 million photocopies a year in the late 1950s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025

A few days later, a heavy bundle of A4 papers arrived: handwritten notes, photocopies of old documents, press clippings from the Kent Messenger newspaper.

From BBC ● May 18, 2024

It would take time to make photocopies, and the work obviously couldn’t be done in a public copy shop.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

The bank photocopied the check so I read it.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026

I didn’t give the building a second thought until my best friend and I started a little weekly newspaper we photocopied for 3½ cents a copy from a shop a few doors away.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025

The tendrils of the tightly strung material connect, both physically and metaphorically, the wartime experiences documented in the photocopied pages scattered about, but they also bring to mind out-of-control cell growth and cancerous disease.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

But Mr Auerbach claims Mr Lehrmann turned up to Seven's offices with a massive binder of documents and photocopied more than 500 pages of evidence for the Spotlight episode.

From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2024

I even photocopied your schedule, which I’m sure I still have here somewhere.

From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

Hunkered over a Xerox machine at an ad agency above a flower shop on Melrose Avenue, Daniel Ellsberg began the laborious process of photocopying the smuggled documents that he hoped would end the Vietnam War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2024

After the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was found guilty in 1984 of illegally photocopying the music of a religious composer, the U.S.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024

In 2021, the SPS started photocopying mail being sent to inmates to try and close down this route.

From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2024

The two have said they met in 1998 while waiting for rationed photocopying machine time.

From Reuters ● Oct. 2, 2023

I was answering phones, photocopying, distributing newsletters on the street.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

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