cloning
/ˈkloʊnɪŋ/noun, verb
cloning is a noun meaning “The production of an exact copy of an object” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-L-O-N-I-N-G and has 2 syllables, and it appears 1.7 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of cloning is clonings.
What does cloning mean?
noun
- 1
The production of an exact copy of an object.
- 2
The production of a cloned embryo by transplanting the nucleus of a somatic cell into an ovum.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of clone
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce cloning?
- /ˈkloʊnɪŋ/
Cloning has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cloning.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cloning
- clonings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is cloning?
Cloning appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Cloning in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense production of a cloned embryo:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.