What does facsimile mean?
A facsimile is an exact copy or faithful reproduction of something — typically a rare book, manuscript, painting, map, signature, or other document whose original is precious, fragile, or inaccessible. The word carries a strong implication of fidelity: a true facsimile aims to match the original in size, appearance, and often materials, distinguishing it from an ordinary copy or loose imitation. It is most at home in formal registers — libraries sell facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts, auction houses describe facsimile signatures, and legal documents may bear a stamped facsimile rather than a handwritten autograph. The word also survives in telecommunications as the formal name for what is now universally shortened to 'fax': a system for transmitting scanned images of documents over phone lines, popular in offices before email took over. Derived from the Latin phrase fac simile, meaning 'make alike' or 'make similar', facsimile entered English in the seventeenth century and remains a precise, useful term whenever exactness of reproduction is the point.
An exact copy or faithful reproduction of a document, book, artwork, signature, or other original.
"Scholars consulted a facsimile of the Dead Sea Scrolls rather than handling the fragile originals."
Especially common in bibliographic, archival, and legal contexts.
The process or result of transmitting scanned printed material electronically over telephone lines; a fax.
"He sent the signed agreement by facsimile within the hour."
Now dated; 'fax' is the standard modern term.
Standard regular plural; used when referring to multiple copies or reproductions.
"The archive holds several facsimiles of the illuminated manuscript for classroom use."
'Facsimile' comes straight from Latin fac simile — 'make it similar' — which is why every copy it names is, quite literally, commanded to imitate.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of facsimile
Facsimile derives directly from the Latin phrase fac simile, meaning 'make similar' or 'make alike', formed from the imperative fac ('make') and the neuter of similis ('like, similar'). It entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially used in scholarly and bibliographic contexts to denote an exact copy of a text. The same Latin root similis underlies English words such as similar, simulate, and assimilate. The telegraphic sense arose in the nineteenth century with experiments in transmitting images electrically, later becoming everyday vocabulary with the office fax machine, itself a clipping of facsimile.
Related word forms
How facsimile is actually used
Facsimile is somewhat formal and most common in scholarly, archival, publishing, and legal contexts, where precision about fidelity to an original matters. In everyday speech 'copy' or 'replica' usually replaces it. The telecommunication sense has largely been absorbed by the clipped form 'fax', though 'facsimile machine' survives in formal writing. Plural: facsimiles.
Easily confused with facsimile
A fax is the informal term for a message sent by fax machine, while facsimile more broadly means any exact reproduction and is the formal root from which 'fax' was abbreviated.