The meaning of "REPLICATE"

When we use the term "replicate", with the scientific language we can intend different things: 1) EXPERIMENTAL REPLICATE: each sample is an exact copy of the other. All the experimental procedures are perfectly repeated in all the replicates of the same condition. To do an example, we may expose 10.000 cells per replicate at a given concentration of a toxicant. Another example: each animal receiving a given dose of a substance. The variability of replicates mainly depends on the biological variability and susceptibility. 2) ANALYTICAL REPLICATE: we test a condition only once, but we divide the sample in n aliquots to be measured. In this case, the replicate is used to test the stability of an experimental signal more than the biological repeatability of the experiment. We expect the analytical replicate variability is lower than that of experimental replicates. Generally, when we mention an experiment with n replicates, we intend the case 1 and therefore I will always refer to it.