I just took a look at the etymology of the word “clone” and it was coined in 1903 as “clon” to indicate any piece of vegetative material used for asexual reproduction (which might support what I called the “sloppy use”of the word), but it was actually further limited to tissues that were used for grafting, for which a division would not qualify.
While that might support my assessment of broad, sloppy use, if we - the orchid community - could agree to commonly use “clone” as a general term and “mericlone” to indicate a plant grown from meristematic tissue culture, we might be better off.
Hmmm... Reading what I just wrote makes me think we need to differentiate “tissue culture” a different category, as well. Just about every chrysanthemum we’ve ever seen is cultured from stem end cuttings. Not exactly a “division”, but certainly not cultured meristematic tissue, either.
So, knowing that to a plant, the meristematic tissue is a cluster of living, undifferentiated cells (equivalent to “stem cells” in animals) that can develop into pretty much any kind of living tissue, it would seem that - in terms of being identical to the “donor” plant - divisions (including keikies) come the closest, tissue cultured plants (including phal inflorescence culture) would be next, and mericlones being the least reliable.
I suppose tissue-cultured plants are also as identical as divisions, but I suppose the chemical treatments used to induce growth might cause genetic shifting, so I’ll mentally hold onto that difference.
(edit/post script). This is precisely why I really like this forum. We get into discussions of import, and help each other come to agreement or civil, settled-on disagreement, rather than just “Here’s a picture of my flowering plant”, or “Jane, you ignorant ****” commentary.