boilerplate
noun
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Boilerplate in Print
In the days before computers, small newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates. The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn't have to set it. Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates "boiler plates" because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers. Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Because boilerplate stories were often more filler—material used to fill extra space in a column or page of a newspaper to increase its size—than important or informative news, the word acquired negative connotations and gained the "standardized or formulaic language" sense widely used today.
Examples of boilerplate in a Sentence
Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 1 July 2025
More relevant is that, beyond gaining speed, developers are now having to focus more on architecture, edge cases and integration logic instead of syntax and boilerplate.
—Federico Sendra, Forbes.com, 26 June 2025
GitHub's Copilot reduces the tedium of writing boilerplate functions by autocompleting repetitive code patterns.
—Gabriel Snyder, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 June 2025
Not surprisingly, the company reverts to boilerplate language in its perfunctory SEC filings.
—Noah Barsky, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for boilerplate
Cite this Entry
“Boilerplate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boilerplate. Accessed 23 Jul. 2025.
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boilerplate
noun
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