Word.ws English Dictionary

clone

UK/kləʊn//kloʊn/

clone noun: a living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical.

Noun

clone (plural clones)

  1. A living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical.
    • This new species is a clone of the mimosa plant.
  2. A group of identical cells derived from a single cell.
    • […] each identified blastomere, and the clone of its descendant cells, plays a specific role in later development1985, Gunther S. Stent, David A. Weisblat, “Cell lineage in the development of invertebrate nervous systems”, in Annual review of neuroscience, volume 8, number 1, page 45
  3. A copy or imitation of something already existing, especially when designed to simulate it.
    • The computer manufacturer produced IBM PC clones in the 1990s.
  4. (informal) A person who is exactly like or very similar to another person, in terms of looks or behavior.
    • Once, on a confident whim, I approached the group of popular girls in an attempt to broaden my circle. Their ringleader took one glance at my new Aeropostale T-shirt and whispered to her clones, “Yeah, Aero's definitely out now.”2017, Allyson Kennedy, Can't Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl
  5. (slang) A Castro clone.
    • Some of me is clone, but a good part of me is still disco.1984 August 11, Martin, “Untitled cartoon (caption)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 5, page 7
    • By mid-1983, I had grown weary of reading literature by white gay men who fell, quite easily, into three camps: the incestuous literati of Manhattan and Fire Island, the San Francisco cropped-mustache-clones, and the Boston-to-Cambridge politically correct radical faggots.1986, Joseph Beam, “Introduction”, in In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 13

Verb

clone (third-person singular simple present clones, present participle cloning, simple past and past participle cloned)

  1. (transitive) To create a clone of.
    • The scientists were able to clone a sheep.
    • We cloned the database to perform some testing.

clone meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

clone in Hindi

क्लोन

clone in Tamil

குளோன், சிறப்புத்தாவரம், முளைவகை, செல்வர்க்கம், குத்துச்செடு, போத்துக்கொத்து

clone in Marathi

क्लोन, क्लोन करण्यासाठी

clone in Urdu

کلون, کلون کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
clone in Bengali
ক্লোন, ক্লোন করতে
clone in Telugu
క్లోన్, క్లోన్ చేయడానికి, క్లోన్ చెయ్యడానికి
clone in Malayalam
ക്ലോൺ, ക്ലോൺ ചെയ്യാൻ, ക്ലോൺ ചെയ്യുക
clone in Kannada
ಅಚ್ಚುರೂಪ, ಪಡಿಯಚ್ಚು, ತದ್ರೂಪ
clone in Punjabi
ਕਲੋਨ, ਕਲੋਨ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਕਲੋਨਿੰਗ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
clone in Gujarati
ક્લોન, ક્લોન કરવા માટે, ક્લોન કરવા
clone in Odia
କ୍ଲୋନ, କ୍ଲୋନ୍, କ୍ଲୋନ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
clone in Nepali
क्लोन, क्लोन गर्न
clone in Arabic
كْلُون klūn, مُسْتَنْسَخ mustansaḵ
clone in Malay
klon
clone in Indonesian
klona
clone in Persian
همسانه hamsāne, سانیز, سانیزدن
clone in Thai
โคลน kloon
clone in Vietnamese
bản sao

Examples of clone in a sentence

  • Some countries are more prohibitive than others when it comes to hot topics like euthanasia and cloning.
  • Canada may put a moratorium on cloning for research.
  • There is a lack of legislation about human cloning.

All 40 example sentences with clone

Forms of clone

Noun
pluralclones
alternative form (obsolete)clon
Verb
third-person singular presentclones
present participlecloning
past participlecloned
pastcloned

Plural of clone: clones

Origin of clone

Coined (in botany) in 1903, based on Ancient Greek κλών (klṓn, “twig”). Figurative use from the 1970s.

Words formed from clone

Phrases with clone

Words that rhyme with clone

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about clone

What does clone mean?
Clone means a living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical.
What is clone in Hindi?
Clone in Hindi is क्लोन. See Clone meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is clone?
Clone can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce clone?
Clone is pronounced /kloʊn/ (US).
What is the plural of clone?
The plural of clone is clones.

Words near clone in the dictionary

  1. Clonbinane
  2. Clonch
  3. Clonches
  4. Cloncurry
  5. Clondalkin
  6. clone
  7. clone town
  8. clone towns
  9. cloneable
  10. cloned
  11. cloneless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clone (page history and authors); clone (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clone (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clone (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); clone (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-clone.ogg.

Cite this entry: “clone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.