"copycat" meaning in English

See copycat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more copycat [comparative], most copycat [superlative]
Etymology: Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”). Etymology templates: {{compound|en|copy|cat|t2=former derogatory term for a person}} copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”) Head templates: {{en-adj}} copycat (comparative more copycat, superlative most copycat)
  1. Imitative; unoriginal.
    Sense id: en-copycat-en-adj-K5VG93g3 Categories (other): English terms with collocations, Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 43 20 32 5
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: copy cat, copy-cat

Noun

Forms: copycats [plural]
Etymology: Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”). Etymology templates: {{compound|en|copy|cat|t2=former derogatory term for a person}} copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} copycat (plural copycats)
  1. (informal, derogatory) One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work. Tags: derogatory, informal Categories (topical): People Translations (one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work): مُقَلِّد (muqallid) [masculine] (Arabic), имитатор (imitator) [masculine] (Bulgarian), подражател (podražatel) [masculine] (Bulgarian), 跟風狗 (Chinese Mandarin), 跟风狗 (Chinese Mandarin), kopist [common-gender] (Danish), na-aper (Dutch), järeleahvija (Estonian), plagiaator (Estonian), matkija (Finnish), jäljittelijä (Finnish), copycat [masculine] (French), imitateur [masculine] (French), copieur [masculine] (French), faussaire [masculine] (French), Nachahmer (German), Nachäffer (German), Nachmacher [masculine] (German), Imitator [masculine] (German), peniru (Indonesian), 모방자 (mobangja) (alt: 模倣者) (Korean), pakaļdarinātājs [masculine] (Latvian), папага́л (papagál) [masculine] (Macedonian), подра́жател (podrážatel) [masculine] (Macedonian), имита́тор (imitátor) [masculine] (Macedonian), hermegås [feminine, masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), imitator [masculine] (Polish), naśladowca [masculine] (Polish), copião (Portuguese), imitador [masculine] (Portuguese), imitadora [feminine] (Portuguese), имита́тор (imitátor) [masculine] (Russian), подража́тель (podražátelʹ) [masculine] (Russian), имѝта̄тор [Cyrillic] (Serbo-Croatian), епигон [Cyrillic] (Serbo-Croatian), imitator [Latin] (Serbo-Croatian), oponašatelj [Latin] (Serbo-Croatian), epigon [Latin] (Serbo-Croatian), copión [masculine] (Spanish), copiona [feminine] (Spanish), efterapare (Swedish), härmapa (Swedish), gaya-gaya (Tagalog)
    Sense id: en-copycat-en-noun-tznxmFVO Disambiguation of People: 25 42 33 0 Disambiguation of "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work": 88 12
  2. A criminal who imitates the crimes of another; specifically, a criminal who commits the same crime, especially a highly-publicized one, that has just or recently been committed by someone else.
    Sense id: en-copycat-en-noun-YPsbKlzC Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 2 entries, Pages with entries, Terms with Arabic translations, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Danish translations, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Estonian translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Indonesian translations, Terms with Japanese translations, Terms with Korean translations, Terms with Latvian translations, Terms with Macedonian translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations, Terms with Spanish translations, Terms with Swedish translations, Terms with Tagalog translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 27 47 3 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 10 31 49 11 Disambiguation of Pages with 2 entries: 9 31 52 7 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 6 33 57 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Arabic translations: 21 24 46 8 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 19 26 47 8 Disambiguation of Terms with Danish translations: 15 25 55 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 12 28 46 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Estonian translations: 25 27 42 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 19 26 47 8 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 11 28 47 14 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 18 25 48 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Indonesian translations: 25 27 42 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Japanese translations: 12 28 51 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Korean translations: 19 26 47 8 Disambiguation of Terms with Latvian translations: 25 27 42 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Macedonian translations: 25 27 42 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 20 24 47 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations: 20 26 45 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 17 26 44 12 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 12 28 51 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations: 25 27 42 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 10 28 52 10 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 18 26 48 8 Disambiguation of Terms with Tagalog translations: 19 26 47 8
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: copy cat, copy-cat Derived forms: copycatism, copycatter

Verb

Forms: copycats [present, singular, third-person], copycatting [participle, present], copycatted [participle, past], copycatted [past]
Etymology: Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”). Etymology templates: {{compound|en|copy|cat|t2=former derogatory term for a person}} copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”) Head templates: {{en-verb|++}} copycat (third-person singular simple present copycats, present participle copycatting, simple past and past participle copycatted)
  1. To act as a copycat; to copy in a shameless or derivative way. Translations (to copy in a derivative way): abklatschen (German), abkupfern (German)
    Sense id: en-copycat-en-verb-kpu3pfYC
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: copy cat, copy-cat

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "copycatism"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "copycatter"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "copycats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "copycat (plural copycats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "25 42 33 0",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899 July, Robert Grant, “Letter to a young man wishing to be an American”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume 26:",
          "text": "And in it all they are merely copy-cats—servile followers of the aristocratic creed, but without the genuine prestige of the old-time nobilities.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, Gene Stratton-Porter, Her Father's Daughter:",
          "text": "I wanted to make them brilliant. I wanted to make them interesting. And of course I could not do it by myself. I am nothing but a copycat. I just quoted a lot of things I had heard you say; and I did worse than that, Peter.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work."
      ],
      "id": "en-copycat-en-noun-tznxmFVO",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "imitate",
          "imitate"
        ],
        [
          "plagiarize",
          "plagiarize"
        ],
        [
          "work",
          "work"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, derogatory) One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "muqallid",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "مُقَلِّد"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "imitator",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "имитатор"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "podražatel",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "подражател"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "跟風狗"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "跟风狗"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "kopist"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "na-aper"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "et",
          "lang": "Estonian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "järeleahvija"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "et",
          "lang": "Estonian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "plagiaator"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "matkija"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "jäljittelijä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "copycat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "imitateur"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "copieur"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "faussaire"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "Nachahmer"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "Nachäffer"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Nachmacher"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Imitator"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "id",
          "lang": "Indonesian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "peniru"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "alt": "模倣者",
          "code": "ko",
          "lang": "Korean",
          "roman": "mobangja",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "모방자"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "lv",
          "lang": "Latvian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pakaļdarinātājs"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "papagál",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "папага́л"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "podrážatel",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "подра́жател"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "imitátor",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "имита́тор"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "hermegås"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "imitator"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "naśladowca"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "copião"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "imitador"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "imitadora"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "imitátor",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "имита́тор"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "podražátelʹ",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "подража́тель"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "Cyrillic"
          ],
          "word": "имѝта̄тор"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "Cyrillic"
          ],
          "word": "епигон"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "Latin"
          ],
          "word": "imitator"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "Latin"
          ],
          "word": "oponašatelj"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "Latin"
          ],
          "word": "epigon"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "copión"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "copiona"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "efterapare"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "härmapa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "tl",
          "lang": "Tagalog",
          "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
          "word": "gaya-gaya"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "23 27 47 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 31 49 11",
          "kind": "other",
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        {
          "_dis": "9 31 52 7",
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          "_dis": "6 33 57 4",
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        {
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        {
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        {
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        {
          "_dis": "17 26 44 12",
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        {
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        {
          "_dis": "10 28 52 10",
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          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
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        {
          "_dis": "18 26 48 8",
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        {
          "_dis": "19 26 47 8",
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a copycat strangler",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A criminal who imitates the crimes of another; specifically, a criminal who commits the same crime, especially a highly-publicized one, that has just or recently been committed by someone else."
      ],
      "id": "en-copycat-en-noun-YPsbKlzC",
      "links": [
        [
          "criminal",
          "criminal"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "publicize",
          "publicize"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more copycat",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most copycat",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "copycat (comparative more copycat, superlative most copycat)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with collocations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with collocations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "43 20 32 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "copycat crime",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998 July, Robert D. Kaplan, quoting Alex Villa, “Travels Into America's Future”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "“Because of my size, I was a natural leader in junior high school. Gangs are the most copycat of subcultures. It used to be zoot suits; now it's tattoos. When I was thirteen, I got a tattoo.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Daniel Miller, Capitalism: an ethnographic approach:",
          "text": "As one executive put it: Now in the beverage market we are to a great extent very copycat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Alan Cole, Fathering your father: the Zen of fabrication in Tang Buddhism:",
          "text": "It was that very copycat kind of \"grandfather stealing\" that makes Jinjue's text look like the son of Du Fei's Record, even as it works to push Du Fei's \"father-text\" out of the way.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 December 19, Zeynep Tufekci, “The Media Needs to Stop Inspiring Copycat Murders. Here's How.”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "We need to figure out how to balance the public interest in learning about a mass shooting with the public interest in reducing copycat crime.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 6, Dan Milmo, quoting Mark Zuckerberg, “Zuckerberg uses Threads to say Twitter has missed its chance”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The chief executive and founder of Meta used his new Threads account to say Twitter had not “nailed” its opportunity to become a mega app and that his copycat version would be “focusing on kindness”.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Imitative; unoriginal."
      ],
      "id": "en-copycat-en-adj-K5VG93g3",
      "links": [
        [
          "Imitative",
          "imitative#English"
        ],
        [
          "unoriginal",
          "unoriginal"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "copycats",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "++"
      },
      "expansion": "copycat (third-person singular simple present copycats, present participle copycatting, simple past and past participle copycatted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Gouverneur Morris, “Targets”, in The Spread Eagle and Other Stories:",
          "text": "Because beasts don't talk with words, they talk with sounds, and I copycatted my language from beasts and birds[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 September 3, Janet Maslin, “His Girl Friday Meets a Sadistically Chic Serial Killer”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "In a genre that is rife with copycatting, Ms. Cain deserves some credit for having gotten a potentially interesting new series off the ground.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act as a copycat; to copy in a shameless or derivative way."
      ],
      "id": "en-copycat-en-verb-kpu3pfYC",
      "links": [
        [
          "copycat",
          "#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "copy",
          "copy"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to copy in a derivative way",
          "word": "abklatschen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to copy in a derivative way",
          "word": "abkupfern"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Requests for review of Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Arabic translations",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Danish translations",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Estonian translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Indonesian translations",
    "Terms with Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Korean translations",
    "Terms with Latvian translations",
    "Terms with Macedonian translations",
    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
    "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations",
    "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "Terms with Swedish translations",
    "Terms with Tagalog translations",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "copycatism"
    },
    {
      "word": "copycatter"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "copycats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "copycat (plural copycats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899 July, Robert Grant, “Letter to a young man wishing to be an American”, in Scribner's Magazine, volume 26:",
          "text": "And in it all they are merely copy-cats—servile followers of the aristocratic creed, but without the genuine prestige of the old-time nobilities.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1921, Gene Stratton-Porter, Her Father's Daughter:",
          "text": "I wanted to make them brilliant. I wanted to make them interesting. And of course I could not do it by myself. I am nothing but a copycat. I just quoted a lot of things I had heard you say; and I did worse than that, Peter.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "imitate",
          "imitate"
        ],
        [
          "plagiarize",
          "plagiarize"
        ],
        [
          "work",
          "work"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, derogatory) One who imitates or plagiarizes others' work."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a copycat strangler",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A criminal who imitates the crimes of another; specifically, a criminal who commits the same crime, especially a highly-publicized one, that has just or recently been committed by someone else."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "criminal",
          "criminal"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "publicize",
          "publicize"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "muqallid",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "مُقَلِّد"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "imitator",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "имитатор"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "podražatel",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "подражател"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "跟風狗"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "跟风狗"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "kopist"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "na-aper"
    },
    {
      "code": "et",
      "lang": "Estonian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "järeleahvija"
    },
    {
      "code": "et",
      "lang": "Estonian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "plagiaator"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "matkija"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "jäljittelijä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "copycat"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "imitateur"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "copieur"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "faussaire"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "Nachahmer"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "Nachäffer"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Nachmacher"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Imitator"
    },
    {
      "code": "id",
      "lang": "Indonesian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "peniru"
    },
    {
      "alt": "模倣者",
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "mobangja",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "모방자"
    },
    {
      "code": "lv",
      "lang": "Latvian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pakaļdarinātājs"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "papagál",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "папага́л"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "podrážatel",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "подра́жател"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "imitátor",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "имита́тор"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "hermegås"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "imitator"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "naśladowca"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "copião"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "imitador"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "imitadora"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "imitátor",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "имита́тор"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "podražátelʹ",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "подража́тель"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic"
      ],
      "word": "имѝта̄тор"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic"
      ],
      "word": "епигон"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "Latin"
      ],
      "word": "imitator"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "Latin"
      ],
      "word": "oponašatelj"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "Latin"
      ],
      "word": "epigon"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "copión"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "copiona"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "efterapare"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "härmapa"
    },
    {
      "code": "tl",
      "lang": "Tagalog",
      "sense": "one who imitates or plagiarizes others' work",
      "word": "gaya-gaya"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Requests for review of Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Arabic translations",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Danish translations",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Estonian translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Indonesian translations",
    "Terms with Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Korean translations",
    "Terms with Latvian translations",
    "Terms with Macedonian translations",
    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
    "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations",
    "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "Terms with Swedish translations",
    "Terms with Tagalog translations",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more copycat",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most copycat",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "copycat (comparative more copycat, superlative most copycat)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with collocations",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "copycat crime",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998 July, Robert D. Kaplan, quoting Alex Villa, “Travels Into America's Future”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "“Because of my size, I was a natural leader in junior high school. Gangs are the most copycat of subcultures. It used to be zoot suits; now it's tattoos. When I was thirteen, I got a tattoo.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Daniel Miller, Capitalism: an ethnographic approach:",
          "text": "As one executive put it: Now in the beverage market we are to a great extent very copycat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Alan Cole, Fathering your father: the Zen of fabrication in Tang Buddhism:",
          "text": "It was that very copycat kind of \"grandfather stealing\" that makes Jinjue's text look like the son of Du Fei's Record, even as it works to push Du Fei's \"father-text\" out of the way.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 December 19, Zeynep Tufekci, “The Media Needs to Stop Inspiring Copycat Murders. Here's How.”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "We need to figure out how to balance the public interest in learning about a mass shooting with the public interest in reducing copycat crime.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 6, Dan Milmo, quoting Mark Zuckerberg, “Zuckerberg uses Threads to say Twitter has missed its chance”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The chief executive and founder of Meta used his new Threads account to say Twitter had not “nailed” its opportunity to become a mega app and that his copycat version would be “focusing on kindness”.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Imitative; unoriginal."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Imitative",
          "imitative#English"
        ],
        [
          "unoriginal",
          "unoriginal"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Requests for review of Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Arabic translations",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Danish translations",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Estonian translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Indonesian translations",
    "Terms with Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Korean translations",
    "Terms with Latvian translations",
    "Terms with Macedonian translations",
    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
    "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "Terms with Russian translations",
    "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations",
    "Terms with Swedish translations",
    "Terms with Tagalog translations",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "copy",
        "3": "cat",
        "t2": "former derogatory term for a person"
      },
      "expansion": "copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally American English, from copy + cat (“former derogatory term for a person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "copycats",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "copycatted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "++"
      },
      "expansion": "copycat (third-person singular simple present copycats, present participle copycatting, simple past and past participle copycatted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Gouverneur Morris, “Targets”, in The Spread Eagle and Other Stories:",
          "text": "Because beasts don't talk with words, they talk with sounds, and I copycatted my language from beasts and birds[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 September 3, Janet Maslin, “His Girl Friday Meets a Sadistically Chic Serial Killer”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "In a genre that is rife with copycatting, Ms. Cain deserves some credit for having gotten a potentially interesting new series off the ground.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act as a copycat; to copy in a shameless or derivative way."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "copycat",
          "#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "copy",
          "copy"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "copy cat"
    },
    {
      "word": "copy-cat"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to copy in a derivative way",
      "word": "abklatschen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to copy in a derivative way",
      "word": "abkupfern"
    }
  ],
  "word": "copycat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for copycat meaning in English (15.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.