boilerplate vs stencil

boilerplate

noun
  • Syndicated material. 

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

  • 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. 

stencil

noun
  • A pattern produced using such a utensil. 

  • A two-ply master sheet for use with a mimeograph. 

  • A thin sheet, either perforated or using some other technique, with which a pattern may be produced upon a surface; a utensil that contains a perforated sheet. 

verb
  • To print with a stencil. 

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