Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌳 To split away 💻 To copy and split
to fork off

to fork off

7.4
To copy a code project so someone can work on it separately
  • phrasal verb
  • /fɔrk ɔf/
  • Specialized
translation icon : dividirse
  • To explore different functionalities, the team decided to fork off the existing repository.

Examples

  • The software developer decided to fork off the project to add new features without affecting the main version.

  • Not all of them, but, but, but many of them are forked off of Bitcoin or one of the major coins medars.

  • After several improvements, he chose to fork off the original codebase to create his own version of the app.

Synonyms

to spin off
vsto fork off
11 4.3

To create a new company or product from part of a larger business

focuses on deliberate separate copying to develop features or test changes
to branch off
vsto fork off
4 3.3

Leave a main route, area, or topic and go in a different direction

creates an intentional separate project copy rather than a mere direction change

Antonyms

to merge
192 3.2

To join two or more things so they become one

How Independent

to spin off
11 4.3
to fork off
  • Specialized
7.4
to clone
  • Specialized
58 4.5
branch
  • Specialized
32 5.7

Surface Forms

fork off infinitive
forked off past
forked off past participle
forking off present participle
forks off third person singular

Morphology

fork + off

The meaning is directly derivable from 'fork' (to branch/split) plus 'off' (away), so the sense of branching away from the original is transparent; the computing use is a domain-specific extension but follows the same compositional logic. A B1 learner who knows the constituents would plausibly infer that 'fork off' means to create a branch or separate version away from the original.

Etymology

The computing use of fork off comes from the same road image: a developer makes a 'copy' of a project that forks off and takes its own path. So fork off means 'to create a separate version'.