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Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original organism or thing. A clone in the biological sense, therefore, is a single cell (like bacteria, lymphocytes etc.) or multi-cellular organism that has been directly copied from and is therefore genetically identical to another living organism. Sometimes this term can refer to "natural" clones made either when an organism reproduces asexually or when two genetically identical individuals are produced by chance (as with identical twins), but in common parlance, a clone is an identical copy created intentionally.
The term clone is derived from ????, the Greek word for "twig". In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century; the final e came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long o" instead of a "short o". Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively.
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