Etymology Coined (in botany) in 1903, based on Ancient Greek κλών (klṓn, “twig”). Figurative use from the 1970s.
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
Biology, Cytology, Medicine, Natural sciences, Sciences 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:
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:
2 more examples
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).1991 August 31, Arnold M. Zwicky, “What the hell is a TWINKIE?”, in soc.motss (Usenet):
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.2022, Richard Vytniorgu, “Effeminate Gay Bottoms in the West”, in Journal of Homosexuality, volume 70, number 10, page 2113: