noun
clone
klohn
noun
1
A living thing produced from a single ancestor so that it is genetically identical to it.
"Scientists created the first cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly, in 1996."
"The lab grows plant clones from a single healthy cutting."
2
A copy or knockoff made to closely imitate something else, or a person who looks or acts almost exactly like someone else.
"The budget phone was basically a clone of last year's flagship model."
verb
1
To produce an exact genetic (or close functional) copy of something.
"Researchers successfully cloned the endangered species in a bid to save it from extinction."
How to Use Clone
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishAn exact copy of a living thing, or more loosely, any close copy or imitation.
Common pairings
clone an animal
a clone of
human cloning
Word Forms
cloned past tense, clones plural, clones singular
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Scientists created the first _____ mammal, a sheep named Dolly, in 1996.
Etymology
Coined in 1903 from Greek klōn, "twig" — the idea being a new plant grown from a cutting. The figurative sense (a copy of a person or thing) only caught on in the 1970s.