Duplicaties

Duplicaties (Dutch: duplications) are the occurrences where an original item is copied or reproduced, resulting in one or more duplicates. The concept is widely used as a general descriptor in science, information technology, and media to indicate redundancy, copies, or repeating elements.

In genetics, duplication refers to a structural variation in which a segment of DNA is copied and inserted elsewhere in the genome. Gene duplications can occur by unequal crossing over during meiosis, replication slippage, or retrotransposition. Duplications add genetic material that may evolve new functions or increase gene expression, but can also disrupt regulation and cause disease if dosage is imbalanced.

In data management and computing, duplicates are identical copies of data records, files, or blocks. Duplicate data inflates storage, complicates analysis, and can bias results. Deduplication and data cleaning aim to detect and remove duplicates, often using exact matching or fuzzy matching.

In other domains, duplication appears in media rights and copyright considerations when content is copied or licensed. In linguistics, repetition for emphasis is a feature in many languages, and duplications can arise as a productive morpheme or stylistic device. The term thus serves as a general label for copy-creation across contexts.