clone
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An unauthorized copy or imitation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klohnIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkloʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An unauthorized copy or imitation
A copy or imitation of something already existing, especially when designed to simulate it.
A living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical.
cytology
A group of genetically identical cells or organisms derived from a single cell or individual by some kind of asexual reproduction
informal
A person who is almost identical to another
informal
A person who is exactly like or very similar to another person, in terms of looks or behavior.
verb
transitive
To create a clone of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An unauthorized copy or imitation
Used this way, clone is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use clone
- “People can clone a sheep nowadays.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A general term for the research activity that creates a copy of some biological entity (a gene or organism or cell).
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to a person who is almost identical to another.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.