boilerplate vs template

boilerplate

noun
  • A sheet of copper or steel used in the construction of a boiler. 

  • Syndicated material. 

  • The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882). 

  • Standard text or program code used routinely and added with a text editor or word processor; text of a legal or official nature added to documents or labels. 

  • Hard, icy snow which may be dangerous to ski on. 

  • Formulaic or hackneyed language. 

  • A plate attached to industrial machinery, identifying information such as manufacturer, model number, serial number, and power requirements. 

adj
  • Describing text or other material of a standard or routine nature. 

  • Used to refer to a non-functional spacecraft used to test configuration and procedures. 

verb
  • To store (standard text) so that it can easily be retrieved for reuse. 

template

noun
  • A strip of metal used in boiler-making, pierced with a series of holes, and serving as a guide in marking out a line of rivet-holes. 

  • A macromolecule which provides a pattern for the synthesis of another molecule. 

  • A generic model or pattern from which other objects are based or derived. 

  • A partially defined class or function, that can be instantiated in a variety of ways depending on the instantiation arguments. 

  • document template (file with a basic outline for a work) 

  • A physical object whose shape is used as a guide to make other objects. 

verb
  • To set up or mark off using a template. 

  • To synthesize by means of a template. 

  • To provide a template or pattern for. 

How often have the words boilerplate and template occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )