Meanings
plural mimeographs
- historicalA machine for making printed copies using typed stencil, eventually superseded by photocopying.
2 more examples
So it also is in regard to the mimeograph, whose forerunner, the electric pen, was born of Edison's brain in 1877. He had been long impressed by the desirability of the rapid production of copies of written documents, and, as we have seen by a previous chapter, he invented the electric pen for this purpose, only to improve upon it later with a more desirable device
1910, Frank Lewis Dyer, Thomas Commerford Martin, chapter 27, in Edison, His Life and InventionsThe old “work horse” of the office, the mimeograph, was a starred performer at the National Business Show, which was recently held at the New York Coliseum. Although glamour equipment such as the electronic computers have had most of the headlines in recent years, the mimeograph machine is still grinding out billions of copies of material a year.
1956 November 8, Alexander R. Hammer, “Duplicator Still The ‘Work Horse’”, in The New York Times, →ISSNSynonyms: stencil duplicator
- A copy produced by such a machine.
present singular third person mimeographs · participle present mimeographing · participle past mimeographed · past mimeographed
- To make mimeograph copies.
Even the ultra-respectable "Evening Transcript", organ of the Brahmins of culture, was down for $144 for typing, mimeographing and sending out "dope" to the country press.
1917, Upton Sinclair, The Profits of Religion […]
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA machine for making printed copies using typed stencil, eventually superseded by photocopying.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna rotary duplicator that uses a stencil through which ink is pressed (trade mark Roneo)
verbprint copies from (a prepared stencil) using a mimeograph
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
A genericization from a trade name coined by A. B. Dick in 1889. From μῖμος (mîmos) + -γράφος (-gráphos); by surface analysis, mimeo + -graph (but diachronically, mimeo came from mimeograph, not the reverse).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian циклостил
- циклостил (ciklostil)machine for making copies
Chinese Mandarin 油印機 /油印机, 油印
- 油印機 /油印机 (yóuyìnjī)machine for making copies
- 油印 (yóuyìn)to make mimeographs
Danish duplikator
- duplikatormachine for making copies
Dutch mimeograaf, stencilmachine
- mimeograafmachine for making copies
- stencilmachinemachine for making copies
- stencilento make mimeographs
Finnish vahaskopiokone, vahasmonistuskone
- vahaskopiokonemachine for making copies
- vahasmonistuskonemachine for making copies
- kopioida vahaksillato make mimeographs
French machine à polycopier, miméographe
- machine à polycopiermachine for making copies
- miméographemachine for making copies
- polycopieusemachine for making copies
- polycopierto make mimeographs
Italian ciclostile, mimeografare
- ciclostilemachine for making copies
- mimeografareto make mimeographs
- ciclostilareto make mimeographs
Japanese 謄写版
- 謄写版 (tōshaban)machine for making copies
Polish powielacz, powielać
- powielaczmachine for making copies
- powielaćto make mimeographs
- powielićto make mimeographs
Portuguese mimeógrafo, mimeografar
- mimeógrafomachine for making copies
- mimeografarto make mimeographs
Russian рота́тор
- рота́тор (rotátor)machine for making copies
Spanish mimeógrafo, ciclostilo
- mimeógrafomachine for making copies
- ciclostilomachine for making copies
- mimeografiarto make mimeographs
Tagalog limwaran
- limwaranmachine for making copies
Cite this entry
mimeograph. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mimeograph
“mimeograph.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mimeograph. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mimeograph,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mimeograph.
Source: mimeograph on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.