clone

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
clone/kləʊn/

▶noun

• 1 Biology an organism or cell, or a group of organisms or cells, produced asexually from one ancestor to which they are genetically identical.

• 2 a person or thing regarded as an exact copy of another.

• 3 informal (within gay culture) a homosexual man who adopts an exaggeratedly macho appearance.

▶verb

• 1 propagate (an organism or cell) as a clone.

  ■ Biochemistry replicate (a fragment of DNA placed in an organism).

• 2 make an identical copy of.

• 3 illegally copy the security codes from (a mobile phone) to others as a way of obtaining free calls.

– derivatives
clonal adjective,
clonality noun,
cloner noun.

– origin early 20th cent.: from Gk klōn ‘twig’.