Clone is an exact, bit-identical copy of a digital data.

In the digital world, a clone is not just a copy — it's a perfect duplicate. Unlike the analog world, where each copy (like a cassette tape copied from another) loses some quality, a digital copy is a 100% faithful recreation of the original. Think of the difference between making a photocopy of a document (analog copy, with loss) and saving a text file with a new name (digital clone, without loss). The term became popular in the era of digital tapes (like ADAT), where it was possible to "clone" one master tape to another without any audio degradation, something impossible with analog tapes. Today, the concept applies to any file copy on a computer.