clone

See also: cloné

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: klōn
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /kloʊn/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kləʊn/
• Rhymes: -əʊn

Noun

clone (plural clones)

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

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. (cytology) A group of identical cells derived from a single cell.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

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.
   • 2017, Allyson Kennedy, Can't Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl:

     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.”

5. (LGBTQ, slang) A Castro clone.
   • 1984 August 11, Martin, “Untitled cartoon (caption)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 5, page 7:

     Some of me is clone, but a good part of me is still disco.

   • 1986, Joseph Beam, “Introduction”, in In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 13:

     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.

   • 1991 August 31, Arnold M. Zwicky, “What the hell is a TWINKIE?”, in soc.motss‎^[1] (Usenet):

     these are cultural categories. they change over time. new ones appear (the Leatherman is recent, the Bear very recent), old ones vanish (though individual aunties and clones are still to be found - arch-clone jimmy pike is still making videos and keeping his stomach muscles in great shape - the Auntie and the Clone as generally recognized categories are no longer with us).

   • 2022, Richard Vytniorgu, “Effeminate Gay Bottoms in the West”, in Journal of Homosexuality‎^[2], volume 70, number 10, page 2113:

     Since the Second World War and the rise of the middle-class “clone gay” in the US and a similar move away from homosexual effeminacy in Britain—often rooted in working class culture—gender nonconforming or effeminate gay males have been edged out of mainstream understandings of what it means to be gay.

Derived terms

• agroclone
• binary clone
• clonability
• clonable
• clonal
• cloneable
• cloneless
• clonelike
• clonemate
• clone town
• clonewheel organ
• clonish
• clonism
• clonology
• clonotype
• Doom clone
• epiclone
• Euroclone
• Famiclone
• hemiclone
• holoclone
• interclone
• meroclone
• microclone
• monoclone
• nonclone
• oligoclone
• paraclone
• Pikaclone
• polyclone
• protoclone
• re-clone
• snowclone
• subclone
• superclone
• teleclone

 

Descendants

• → Italian: clone
• → Polish: klon
• → Turkish: klon

Translations

living organism (originally a plant)

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: clon m
• Catalan: clon (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 克隆 (zh) (kèlóng), 複製 / 复制 (zh) (fùzhì)

• Dutch: kloon (nl)
• Finnish: klooni (fi)
• French: clone (fr) m
• Galician: clon m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Klon (de) m
• Greek: κλώνος (el) m (klónos)
• Hungarian: klón (hu)
• Indonesian: klona (id)
• Italian: clone (it) m
• Japanese: クローン (ja) (kurōn)
• Kazakh: клон (klon)
• Korean: 클론 (keullon)
• Malay: klon
• Persian: همسانه (fa) (hamsāne)
• Portuguese: clone (pt) m
• Romanian: clonă f, clon (ro) n
• Russian: клон (ru) m (klon)
• Spanish: clon (es) m
• Swedish: klon (sv) c
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: klon (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

group of identical cells derived from a single cell

• Arabic: مُسْتَنْسَخ m (mustansaḵ)
• Bulgarian: клон (bg) m (klon)
• Catalan: clon (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 克隆 (zh) (kèlóng), 複製 / 复制 (zh) (fùzhì)

• Dutch: kloon (nl)
• Finnish: klooni (fi)
• French: clone (fr) m
• Galician: clon m
• German: Klone (de) m pl
• Greek: κλώνος (el) m (klónos)
• Indonesian: klona (id)
• Kazakh: клон (klon)
• Malay: klon
• Persian: سانیز
• Portuguese: clone (pt) m
• Swedish: klon (sv) c
• Turkish: klon (tr)

copy of something already existing

• Arabic: مُسْتَنْسَخ m (mustansaḵ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 複製 / 复制 (zh) (fùzhì)

• Dutch: kloon (nl)
• Finnish: klooni (fi)
• French: clone (fr) m
• German: Klon (de) m (humorously)
• Greek: κλώνος (el) m (klónos)
• Ido: klono (io)
• Indonesian: klona (id)
• Italian: clone (it) m
• Japanese: クローン (ja) (kurōn)
• Malay: klon
• Maori: pūrua
• Persian: سانیز
• Polish: klon (pl) m
• Portuguese: clone (pt) m
• Russian: клон (ru) m (klon), ко́пия (ru) f (kópija)
• Swedish: klon (sv) c, kopia (sv) c
• Turkish: klon (tr), kopya (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} клон m

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} klon (sh) m

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.

Derived terms

• reclone

Descendants

• → Thai: โคลน (kloon)

Translations

create a clone

• Asturian: clonar
• Bulgarian: клонирам (kloniram)
• Catalan: clonar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 克隆 (zh) (kèlóng), 複製 / 复制 (zh) (fùzhì)

• Czech: klonovat
• Dutch: klonen (nl)
• Finnish: kloonata (fi)
• French: cloner (fr)
• Galician: clonar
• German: klonen (de)
• Greek: κλωνοποιώ (el) (klonopoió) (active voice), κλωνοποιούμαι (klonopoioúmai) (passive voice)
• Italian: clonare (it)
• Japanese: クローンを作る (kurōn wo tsukeru)
• Maori: whakapūrua
• Persian: سانیزدن
• Polish: klonować impf, sklonować pf
• Portuguese: clonar (pt)
• Romanian: clona (ro)
• Russian: клони́ровать (ru) impf or pf (klonírovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: клонирати

  Roman: klonirati (sh)

• Slovak: klonovať
• Spanish: clonar (es)
• Swedish: klona (sv)
• Thai: โคลน (th) (kloon)
• Turkish: klonlamak (tr)

References

• H.J. Webber. "New Horticultural and Agricultural Terms". Science (new series) 18:501-503, 1903, DOI: 10.1126/science.18.459.501-b.
• C.L. Pollard. "'Clon' versus 'clone'". Science (new series) 22:469, 1905.
• C.L. Pollard. "On the spelling of 'clon'". Science (new series) 22:87-88, 1905.
• W.T. Stearn. "The use of the term 'clone'". Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 74:41-47, 1949.

Anagrams

• Cleon, Colen, Colne

Asturian

Verb

clone

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of clonar

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κλών (klṓn, “twig”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klon/, /klɔn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: clonent, clones
• Hyphenation: clone

Noun

clone m (plural clones)

1. clone

Derived terms

• cloner

Verb

clone

1. inflection of cloner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “clone”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• leçon, oncle

Italian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κλών (klṓn, “twig”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklo.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -one
• Hyphenation: cló‧ne

Noun

clone m (plural cloni)

1. (biology) clone

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English clone, from the same source as above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklo.ne/, /ˈklon/
• Rhymes: -one, -on
• Hyphenation: cló‧ne, clóne

Noun

clone m (plural cloni)

1. (computing, electronics, also figurative) clone

Related terms

• clonare
• clonato

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈklo.ni/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈklo.ni/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈklo.ne/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈklɔ.nɨ/

• Hyphenation: clo‧ne

Etymology 1

Noun

clone m (plural clones)

1. clone (organism produced asexually from a single ancestor)
2. clone (copy of something already existing)
3. clone (group of identical cells derived from a single cell)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

clone

1. inflection of clonar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Noun

clone f pl

1. plural of clonă

Noun

clone n pl

1. plural of clon

Spanish

Verb

clone

1. inflection of clonar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative