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Is there a single word for copy paste errors? Just like "typo"

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    Why have you limited yourself to a single word? Where will you use it?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Jul 27, 2017 at 18:52
  • Other than a flub or gaffe? Not really. Transposition? Transposing? But I would just call it a typo, flub, gaffe, jumble/jumbling.
    – Kace36
    Jul 27, 2017 at 21:53
  • Can you include a sample sentence, showing the context for how the word would be used? This will give people a better sense of what you're looking for. It's also technically required for single-word-requests, and without one there's a danger that your question might be closed.
    – 1006a
    Jul 28, 2017 at 14:19
  • As a suggestion: copy-typo?
    – 0x416e746f6e
    Oct 19, 2021 at 9:16

2 Answers 2

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If you can stomach two words, I think a good wording is a replication error.

Otherwise, an uncommon word (used in scientific settings) is misreplication.

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  • Even in a scientific setting I think misreplication is rarer than replication error, but it is used — see ngram so if the OP really wants a single word, you gave him one.
    – David
    Jul 27, 2017 at 22:21
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Well there is a slang expression I recently encountered for an instance of copying and pasting:

copypasta

For which Wiktionary gives both that and a second meaning:

copypasta (countable and uncountable, plural copypastas)

  1. (Internet, slang) A block of text which has been copied and pasted from somewhere else.

  2. (Internet, slang) An error in a software application caused by the copy-and-paste of erroneous code.

If you wait long enough (or care to start a trend), the meanings will probably fuse to give you what you want.

Remember, you read it here first.

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    copypasta really does refer to newbs copying code that they don't understand into their programs and causing havoc as a result.
    – MikeJRamsey56
    Jul 27, 2017 at 20:48
  • @MikeJRamsey56 — Yes, that would be Wiktionary's second definition. However I think the poster was referring to doing the same with a text document. I'm pretty sure that if the term spreads outside of IT it will be used in the same way.
    – David
    Jul 27, 2017 at 20:59
  • There was a long discussion and essay I did on copypasta recently. I don't think this is what the OP was asking. And @David just an FYI it has spread outside IT. I'm a 30 years veteran of computer science myself. I recently did an essay here on ESS for the origin of copypasta. It's not the same meaning the OP was asking about. No offense intended at all. Just being informative.
    – Kace36
    Jul 27, 2017 at 21:56
  • For a thorough discussion on what "copypasta" means, take a look at Josh's question.
    – RaceYouAnytime
    Jul 27, 2017 at 21:56
  • @Kace36 and RaceYouAnytime — thanks guys. I am on the periphery of IT and hadn't met the term, and think I actually met it on this list in a discussion of answers with dictionary definitions (copypastas) and not much else. And I admit I was trying to be clever, so I deserve to be taken down a peg.
    – David
    Jul 27, 2017 at 22:13

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