reproduce

To reproduce is to produce young — or to make a copy. Biology and photocopiers share a word.

The biological sense is the fundamental one, and reproduction is what defines living things. The copying sense is everyday, so reproducing an image, a document or a sound all mean making another of it, and a reproduction is the copy, especially of a painting or a piece of furniture. Science has a third and important use, since reproducing a result means getting the same outcome from the same experiment, which is how findings are checked.