Annette Gordon-Reed & Peter S. Onuf, Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (W.W. Norton & Co. 2016).
In information technology, a boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be reused over and over without change. By extension, the idea is sometimes applied to reusable programming as in boilerplate code. The term derives from steel manufacturing, where boilerplate is steel rolled into large plates for use in steam boilers.
Definition of template for English Language Learners. : 1  a shape or pattern that is cut out of a hard material (such as metal or plastic) and used to make the same shape and pattern in other pieces of material.