Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Xerox |
XeroxNoun1. A copy made by the xerox process. 2. Duplicator that copies graphic matter by the action of light on an electrically charged photoconductive insulating surface in which the latent image is developed with a resinous powder. Verb1. Reproduce by xerography. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "xerox" was first used: 1952. (references) |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| XES | English | Xerox Engineering Systems | Computer - (Xerox) |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Xerox, currently sloganed as "The Document Company," is the world's largest supplier of dry-paper photocopier machines and associated supplies. Corporate headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut, though the major portion of the company is located in and around Rochester, New York, the area in which the company was founded.
Originally named Haloid and beginning as a manufacturer of photographic paper and equipment, the company came to prominence in the early 1960s with the introduction of the first one-piece, dry-paper photocopier, the Xerox 914. The company expanded substantially throughout the 1960s, making millionaires of some long-suffering investors who had nursed the company through the slow research and development phase of the product. In many ways, this time resembled the early years of microcomputer giants Apple Computer and Microsoft. Proceeds from the introduction of this new industry allowed the company to open a famous research center, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center or Xerox PARC.
Xerox shifted its business model in the 1970s and 1980s as patent expiry removed exclusivity from their copier technology, and diversification plans largely did not succeed. Many technologies developed largely by PARC were ignored by Xerox and made their way into other companies' products—for instance, Ethernet, the WIMP interface, and laser printers. Plans to enter the computer market were destroyed by bad timing (for example, releasing an 8-bit CP/M based system, the Xerox 820, just as IBM readied its more advanced PC). Similarly, Xerox developed a line of advanced typewriters just as the typewriter began to lose out to computer-based word processing. Meanwhile, the company's manufacturing costs were far in excess of those of their Japanese photocopier competitors, its design and manufacturing quality became questionable, and its internal culture had become problematic.
The company was revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through a massive improvement in quality design and realignment of its product line. Development of "digital photocopiers" in the 1990s and a revamp of the entire product range—essentially high-end laser printers with attached scanners—which were able to be attached to computer networks, again gave Xerox a huge technical lead over its competitors. Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete "document service" to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and user support. However, the company struck trouble in an echo of its earlier difficulties when its competitors caught up and it again lost its technical lead. Recently, Xerox, like Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, and other major multinational companies, was revealed to have hidden billions of dollars in past losses through creative accounting practices - though unlike those companies it is still operating. (Needed: more detail discussion of accounting irregularities.)
Xerox, though it is a global brand, has a slightly unusual corporate structure in that it maintains a joint venture, Fuji Xerox, a 50-50 partnership with the Japanese photographic firm Fujifilm, to sell in the Asia-Pacific region, and a similar operation, Rank Xerox, throughout Europe.
See also:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Xerox."
Synonyms: XeroxSynonyms: xerographic copier (n), xerox copy (n), photocopy (v), run off (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Copy | Image, picture, photo, xerox, similitude, semblance, ectype, photo offset, electrotype; imitation; model, representation, adumbration, study; portrait; (representation); resemblance. |
Imitation | Noun: imitation; copying; Verb: transcription; repetition, duplication, reduplication; quotation; reproduction; mimeograph, xerox, facsimile; reprint, offprint. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Xerox |
| English words defined with "xerox": ethernet ♦ xerox copy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "xerox": Alan Kay ♦ Common Lisp, Common LISP Object System, Component Integration Laboratories, constraint satisfaction, Corel VENTURA ♦ drunk mouse syndrome ♦ HiPAC ♦ IDL, Interlisp, Internetwork Packet eXchange, Interpress, ISL ♦ Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System ♦ MBONE, memory smash ♦ NoteCards ♦ Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto Research Centre, PARC, Pictorial Janus ♦ Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal ♦ Scientific Data Systems, SDS 92, SDS 940, Seagate Technology, Service Advertising Protocol, Shugart Associates, Smalltalk ♦ ubiquitous computing ♦ XDS 940, XEROX Corporation, Xerox Data Systems Model 940, XEROX Network Services, XNS. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Xerox" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Czech (xerox), Portuguese (photocopy). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I'm talking about you and me bent over the Xerox machine when no one's looking. (Legalese; writing credit: Billy Ray) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
References | |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
High Tech |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
![]() | [Haloid Xerox copy flo machine]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. | ![]() | [Frank Shifflett adjusting the Haloid Xerox machine]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | At present, Panasonic and Xerox have a large market share. (references) | |
Texas Instruments and Xerox have plants in neighboring Aguascalientes. (references) | ||
The key players in the copier market are Cannon, Xerox, Panasonic and Gestetner. (references) | ||
Economic History | Mexico | Xerox and Texas Instruments represent the electronics sector. (references) |
Ecuador | U.S. hardware (IBM, Xerox) and software (Microsoft, Oracle) companies are also active. (references) | |
Bulgaria | Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Xerox and Cisco continue to be among the market leaders in Bulgaria. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Xerox" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 56.00% of the time. "Xerox" is used about 100 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 56% | 56 | 45,296 |
| Noun (proper) | 37% | 37 | 56,631 |
| Noun (common) | 7% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Total | 100.00% | 100 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| USA | Xerox Corporation |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "xerox": xerox copy ♦ xerox Corporation ♦ xerox Data Systems Model 940 ♦ Xerox machine ♦ xerox Network Services ♦ xerox PARC. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "xerox": Fuji-xerox. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
xerox | 3,017 | xerox toner cartridge | 44 |
xerox copier | 257 | fuji xerox | 42 |
xerox printer | 213 | xerox phaser | 41 |
xerox corporation | 173 | xerox supply | 40 |
xerox printer driver | 117 | xerox part | 40 |
xerox toner | 111 | xerox docuprint m750 | 39 |
xerox driver | 104 | xerox workcentre | 37 |
management strategy xerox | 96 | business small xerox | 36 |
employee performance xerox | 94 | xerox color printer | 36 |
annual report xerox | 92 | xerox printer cartridge | 34 |
xerox cartridge | 88 | xerox inkjet cartridge | 33 |
credit federal union xerox | 87 | xerox m940 | 33 |
xerox ink refill | 74 | xerox ink | 32 |
xerox printer ink refill | 72 | xerox fax machine | 32 |
xerox canada | 63 | xerox laser printer | 31 |
resources.hewitt.com xerox | 53 | credit union xerox | 29 |
xerox corp | 53 | xerox copy machine | 29 |
xerox paper | 53 | xerox m750 | 27 |
xerox ink cartridge | 51 | xerox inkjet printer | 27 |
xerox docuprint | 50 | xerox 8830 | 26 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "xerox"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | makinë fotokopjuese (duplicator), fotokopjoj (photocopy, photostat), fotokopje (photocopy, photostat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تصوير مستند, صور مستندا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | фотокопие (photocopy), ксерокс, ксерокопирам, правя фотокопие (photocopy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 复印. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | xeroxová kopie, xerox, oxeroxovat. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | prendre une photocopie, photocopieuse, photocopie, faire une photocopie, faire photocopier. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | xeroxverfahren, xerokopieren, xerokopie (xerox copy), xerographie (xerographic, xerography, xerox copy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | φωτοτυπία (photocopy, photostat, phototype). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לשכפל (duplicate, mimeograph, roneo, stencil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | xeroxozik (to xerox), xerox eljárás, fénymásol (photocopy, to xerox). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | xerocopia (photocopy, xerocopy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | ゼロサ 社会 (007, double-oh-seven, zero-sum society). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ゼロックス . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 록스로 복사하십시". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eroxxay cópia (backup, carbon, copy, double, manifold, print, replica, reproduction, transcript). (various references) ксерокс. (various references) zeroks. (various references) fotocopiar (photocopy, photostat), fotocopiadora (photocopier), fotocopia (photocopy, photostat). (various references) kseroks. (various references) kuru kopya, fotokopisini çekmek (photocopy, photostat), fotokopi (photocopy, photostat). (various references) ксерокс. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | xeros. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "xerox": xeroxed, xeroxes, xeroxing. (additional references) | |
| |
"Xerox" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Xoox. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "xerox" (pronounced zi"rÄks) |
| 3 | -Ä k s | Volvox. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-o-r-x-x" | |
-2 letters: ore, rex, roe. | |
-3 letters: er, ex, oe, or, ox, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-o-r-x-x" | |
+2 letters: xeroxed, xeroxes. | |
+3 letters: xeroxing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Names: Company Usage 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.