A powerful idiom where one object gets copied into a clipboard so that it can be pasted elsewhere.
The copy and paste commands are fundamental to computing and how a particular OS solves this problem is very much at the foundation at how usable the OS will be for complex tasks of creating content as well as saving time.
Copy and Paste can work on text, files, groups of files, objects such as pictures, drawing elements, formatted text and in many cases groups of these higher level objects.
The implantation of standardized copy-paste functionality and the closely related idea of a undo-redo buffer lies at the core of all modern operating systems.
