reproduce

Reproduce has several related meanings. In biology, to reproduce means to produce offspring, the basic way organisms propagate themselves. More broadly, reproduce can also mean to create a copy or duplicate of something, such as a document, image, or recording.

Biological reproduction is central to life and population dynamics. It can be sexual, requiring two parents and genetic recombination that yields genetically diverse offspring, or asexual, where a single organism produces genetically similar or identical descendants.

Examples of sexual reproduction occur across animals and flowering plants, involving gamete formation, fertilization, and development of offspring. Asexual reproduction includes binary fission in single-celled organisms, budding in yeasts, fragmentation in some invertebrates, and vegetative propagation in plants.

Cellular processes such as mitosis and meiosis underlie reproduction at the organismal level. Mitosis produces two identical cells; meiosis creates haploid gametes with genetic variation, enabling recombination when fertilization occurs.

Outside biology, "reproduce" is used in science to describe the replication of experiments and findings. Reproducibility—the ability to obtain consistent results when an experiment is repeated—is a core standard of credible research, often requiring detailed methods, data sharing, and verification by others. The term also appears in contexts of media and copyright, where reproduction refers to making copies of works.