Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To duplicate, copy, reproduce, or repeat.
  • intransitive verb Biology To reproduce or make an exact copy or copies of (genetic material, a cell, or an organism).
  • intransitive verb To repeat (a scientific experiment) to confirm findings or ensure accuracy.
  • intransitive verb To become replicated; undergo replication.
  • noun A repetition of an experiment or procedure.
  • adjective Duplicated, copied, reproduced, or repeated.
  • adjective Folded over or bent back upon itself.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Folded
  • noun In music, a tone one or more octaves distant from a given tone; a repetition at a higher or lower octave.
  • To fold or bend back: as, a replicated leaf.
  • To reply.
  • In music, to add one of its replicates to (a given tone).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Folded over or backward; folded back upon itself.
  • transitive verb obsolete To reply.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To make a copy (replica) of
  • verb obsolete To reply.
  • noun an outcome of a replication procedure.
  • adjective botany, zoology Folded over or backward; folded back upon itself.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb reproduce or make an exact copy of
  • verb make or do or perform again
  • verb bend or turn backward

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English replicaten, from Late Latin replicāre, replicāt-, to repeat, from Latin, to fold back : re-, re- + plicāre, to fold; see plek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin replicatus, past participle of replicare ("to fold or bend back; reply"), from re ("back") + plicare ("to fold"); see ply.

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Examples

  • The ability to reproduce or replicate is considered the basic definition of life.

    Artificial Life Created in a Laboratory for the First Time | Impact Lab 2010

  • He's said that the one thing he most wanted to replicate from the actual Jim Ellis was the man's composure; whether that's what he does is irrelevant, but he does capture a man choking back his anger, recriminating himself for the times when it erupts.

    GreenCine Daily: Pride. 2007

  • The ability to replicate is essential for the manifestation of the diseases they cause.

    The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1997 - Presentation Speech 1998

  • So I would hope that television would go in a direction of trying to find something that really is different from everything else on the air and that the broadcasters try to originate, as opposed to replicate, which is really what ` s been going on for about the last 10 years.

    CNN Transcript Apr 15, 2005 2005

  • This is a company that invents or stumbles upon a business model or technology impossible to replicate, meaning it can extract high profit margins for the foreseeable future.

    Why Facebook Looks Like a Bargain James B. Stewart 2011

  • While the Bowery Lane Bicycle seems useful enough and is not as outlandishly priced as other Dutch-inspired bikes sold to Americans, I can't help thinking that if Mr. Bernard wants to "replicate" Amsterdam here he might be better off opening a Van Gogh museum and digging a series of canals.

    Appealing Package: What's New Is Old Again BikeSnobNYC 2010

  • Already, Mr. Terrill said, he and a group of state lawmakers are drafting legislation to "replicate" Arizona's law and "go beyond it," with stricter penalties for illegal immigrants.

    Several Governors Come Out Against Arizona Law 2010

  • Campaigners claim the new accommodation facility would "replicate" some of the worst aspects of conditions at the notorious Yarl's Wood immigration centre.

    Croydon asylum centre will be as bad as Yarl's Wood, says charity Mark Townsend 2010

  • Until recently, state law limited the number of charters to 30 — and only 15 were allowed to "replicate," or open multiple campuses.

    Expanding the Charter Option 2009

  • Korean ceremonial architecture has changed so little in 1100 years that the traditional carpenters and painters working today don't really have to 'replicate' anything when they rebuild old structures; they just do what they always do, on a building site that dates back millenia.

    said she'd like to meet a boy who look likes elvis savemyseoul 2008

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