A template is a pre-designed pattern or guide that you use to make copies of something with the same shape, format, or structure. It can be physical, like a stencil, or digital, like a document layout.
It comes from an altered form of 'templet', from French 'templet', a diminutive of 'temple' meaning 'small piece of wood used as a gauge'. The idea is of a model that other things are shaped around.
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