Clone means to make an exact genetic copy of a living thing. Scientists can clone organisms by copying their DNA, creating a new individual with identical genetic information. The most famous clone is probably Dolly the sheep, created in 1996 by scientists in Scotland who copied DNA from an adult sheep cell.

Cloning happens naturally too. When you plant a cutting from a rose bush and it grows into a new plant, that's a clone: it has the exact same genes as the original. Identical twins are natural clones of each other, sharing the same DNA from birth.

In science fiction and everyday conversation, people use clone more loosely. Someone might say a new phone is a clone of a more expensive model, meaning it looks and works almost exactly the same. Or they might joke about needing to clone themselves to get everything done, meaning they wish they could duplicate themselves.

An important thing to understand: a clone isn't the same as a copy machine version of someone. Even if scientists cloned you, that person would grow up differently, have different experiences and memories, and develop their own personality. They'd have your genes but not your life, making them more like a much younger identical twin than a duplicate of you.