different between clear vs utter

English

Alternative forms

• CLR (contraction used in electronics)

Etymology

From Middle English clere, from Anglo-Norman cler, from Old French cler (Modern French clair), from Latin clarus. Displaced native Middle English schir (“clear, pure”) (from Old English sc?r (“clear, bright”)), Middle English skere (“clear, sheer”) (from Old English sc?re and Old Norse sk?r (“sheer, clear, pure”)), Middle English smolt (“clear (of mind), serene”) (from Old English smolt (“peaceful, serene”)). Cognate with Danish klar, Dutch klaar, French clair, German klar, Italian chiaro, Norwegian klar, Portuguese claro, Romanian clar, Spanish claro, and Swedish klar.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kl??(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kl??/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Adjective

clear (comparative clearer, superlative clearest)

1. Transparent in colour.

2. Bright, not dark or obscured.

3. Free of obstacles.
4. Without clouds.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

5. (meteorology) Of the sky, such that less than one eighth of its area is obscured by clouds.
6. Free of ambiguity or doubt.
7. Distinct, sharp, well-marked.

   Synonym: conspicuous

8. (figuratively) Free of guilt, or suspicion.
9. (of a soup) Without a thickening ingredient.
10. Possessing little or no perceptible stimulus.

11. (Scientology) Free from the influence of engrams; see Clear (Scientology).
    • 1971, Leonard Cohen, "Famous Blue Raincoat":

      Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair. She said that you gave it to her that night that you planned to go clear. Did you ever go clear?

12. Able to perceive clearly; keen; acute; penetrating; discriminating.
13. Not clouded with passion; serene; cheerful.

    • with a countenance as clear / As friendship wears at feasts

14. Easily or distinctly heard; audible.
    • c. 1708, Alexander Pope “Ode On St. Cecilia's Day”:

      Hark! the numbers, soft and clear / Gently steal upon the ear

15. Unmixed; entirely pure.

16. Without defects or blemishes, such as freckles or knots.
17. Without diminution; in full; net.
    • 1728, Jonathan Swift “Horace, Lib. 2, Sat. 6”:

      I often wished that I had clear / For life, six hundred pounds a year

Synonyms

• (transparency): pellucid, transparent; See also Thesaurus:transparent
• (free of ambiguity or doubt): See also Thesaurus:comprehensible of Thesaurus:explicit
• (distinct): See also Thesaurus:distinct
• (easily or distinctly heard): See also Thesaurus:audible
• (unmixed): homogeneous

Antonyms

• (transparency): opaque, turbid
• (bright): See also Thesaurus:dark
• (without clouds): cloudy, nebulous; See also Thesaurus:nebulous
• (free of ambiguity or doubt): See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible and Thesaurus:confusing
• (of a soup): thick
• obscure

Hyponyms

• crystal clear

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

clear (not comparable)

1. All the way; entirely.

   I threw it clear across the river to the other side.

2. Not near something or touching it.

   Stand clear of the rails, a train is coming.

3. free (or separate) from others
4. (obsolete) In a clear manner; plainly.

Translations

Verb

clear (third-person singular simple present clears, present participle clearing, simple past and past participle cleared)

1. (transitive) To remove obstructions, impediments or other unwanted items from.

   Police took two hours to clear the road.

   If you clear the table, I'll wash up.

   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].

   • 1715–8, Matthew Prior, “Alma: or, The Progre?s of the Mind” in Poems on Several Occa?ions (1741), canto III, p.297:

     Faith, Dick, I mu?t confe?s, ?tis true // (But this is only Entre Nous) // That many knotty Points there are, // Which All di?cu?s, but Few can clear.
2. (transitive) To remove (items or material) so as to leave something unobstructed or open.

   Please clear all this stuff off the table.

   The loggers came and cleared the trees.

   • 1711 November 6, Joseph Addison, The Spectator No. 215:

     […] Aristotle has brought to explain his Doctrine of Substantial Forms, when he tells us that a Statue lies hid in a Block of Marble; and that the Art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous Matter, and removes the Rubbish.

3. (intransitive) To leave abruptly; to clear off or clear out.
4. (intransitive) To become free from obstruction or obscurement; to become transparent.

5. (transitive) To eliminate ambiguity or doubt from (a matter); to clarify or resolve; to clear up.

6. (transitive) To remove from suspicion, especially of having committed a crime.
   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, Act III, scene v:

     How! Wouldst thou clear rebellion?

7. (transitive) To pass without interference; to miss.

8. (transitive, activities such as jumping or throwing) To exceed a stated mark.

9. (transitive, video games) To finish or complete (a stage, challenge, or game).

   I cleared the first level in 36 seconds.

10. (intransitive) Of a check or financial transaction, to go through as payment; to be processed so that the money is transferred.

11. (transitive, business) To earn a profit of; to net.
12. (transitive) To approve or authorise for a particular purpose or action; to give clearance to.

13. (transitive) To obtain approval or authorisation in respect of.

14. (intransitive) To obtain a clearance.

15. (transitive) To obtain permission to use (a sample of copyrighted audio) in another track.
16. To disengage oneself from incumbrances, distress, or entanglements; to become free.
    • 1613, Francis Bacon, The E??aies (second edition), essay 18: “Of Expences”:

      Be?ides, he that cleares at once will relap?e: for finding him?elfe out of ?traights, he will reuert to his cu?tomes. But hee that cleareth by degrees, induceth an habite of frugality, and gaineth as well vpon his minde, as vpon his E?tate.

17. (transitive, intransitive, sports) To hit, kick, head, punch etc. (a ball, puck) away in order to defend one's goal.
18. (transitive, computing) To reset or unset; to return to an empty state or to zero.

19. (transitive, computing) To style (an element within a document) so that it is not permitted to float at a given position.

Synonyms

• (clear a forest): stub

Derived terms

• clear away
• clear off
• clear out
• clear up
• clearance
• clearing

Translations

Noun

clear (plural clears)

1. (carpentry) Full extent; distance between extreme limits; especially; the distance between the nearest surfaces of two bodies, or the space between walls.

   a room ten feet square in the clear

2. (video games) The completion of a stage or challenge, or of the whole game.

   It took me weeks to achieve a one-credit clear (1CC).

3. (Scientology) A person who is free from the influence of engrams.
   • 1985, Rodney Stark, William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion (page 269)

     Today, clear status can be conferred only by high ranking ministers of the church, and clears are not presented for examination by outsiders.

References

• clear at OneLook Dictionary Search
• clear in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• 'clare, Carle, Clare, carle, lacer, recal

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [??t?]
• (US) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [????]
• Rhymes: -?t?(?)

Etymology 1

From Old English ?tera, comparative of ?t (“out”). Compare outer.

Adjective

utter (not comparable)

1. (now poetic, literary) Outer; furthest out, most remote. [from 10th c.]
2. (obsolete) Outward. [13th–16th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXIII:

     Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

     So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came […] .

3. Absolute, unconditional, total, complete. [from 15th c.]

   utter ruin; utter darkness

   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions : Preface

     They […] are utter strangers to all those anxious […] thoughts which […] disquiet mankind.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:total

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Partly from out (adverb, verb), partly from Middle Dutch uteren.

Verb

utter (third-person singular simple present utters, present participle uttering, simple past and past participle uttered)

1. (transitive) To produce (speech or other sounds) with one's voice.

   Synonyms: let out, say, speak

   Don't you utter another word!

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 1.20,^[2]

     Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 2, Chapter 50, p. 156,^[3]

     […] he made no other reply, for some time, than lifting up his eyes, clasping his hands, and uttering a hollow groan.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Boston: Roberts Brothers, Volume 1, Chapter 17, p. 263,^[4]

     […] Laurie slyly pulled the parrot’s tail, which caused Polly to utter an astonished croak,
2. (transitive) To reveal or express (an idea, thought, desire, etc.) with speech.

   Synonyms: declare, say, tell

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, p. 35,^[5]

     Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6, p. 77,^[6]

     […] tho’ a few odd Fellows will utter their own Sentiments in all Places, yet much the greater Part of Mankind have enough of the Courtier to accommodate their Conversation to the Taste and Inclination of their Superiors.

   • 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Volume 4, Part 2, Book 8, Chapter 83, p. 323,^[7]

     Each had been full of thoughts which neither of them could begin to utter.

   • 1959, Muriel Spark, Memento Mori, New York: Time, 1964, Chapter , p. 213,^[8]

     “Your master,” he declared, “has uttered a damnable lie about a dead friend of mine.”

   • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Part 11, p. 528,^[9]

     “Don’t worry about me,” he uttered with minimum lip movement.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To produce (a noise) (of an inanimate object).

   Synonyms: emit, let out

   Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To spit or blow (something) out of one's mouth.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, “Rip van Winkle” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., London: John Murray, 3rd ed., 1820, Volume 1, p. 79,^[10]

     He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches;

   • 1821, Charles Lamb, “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple” in The London Magazine, Volume 4, No. 21, September 1821, p. 280,^[11]

     Four little winged marble boys used to play their virgin fancies, spouting out ever fresh streams from their innocent-wanton lips, in the square of Lincoln’s-inn […] Are the stiff-wigged living figures, that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothic in appearance? or, is the splutter of their hot rhetoric one half so refreshing and innocent, as the little cool playful streams those exploded cherubs uttered?

5. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or give off (breath).
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV, Scene 2,^[12]

     […] most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath;

   • 1629, William Davenant, The Tragedy of Albovine, King of the Lombards, London: R. Moore, Act I, Scene 1,^[13]

     […] now the King forsakes

     The Campe, he must maintaine luxurious mouthes,

     Such as can vtter perfum’d breath,

6. (transitive, archaic) To shed (a tear or tears).
   • 1615, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Cupid’s Revenge, London: Josias Harrison, Act V, Scene 1,^[14]

     […] weepe now or neuer, thou hast made more sorrowes then we haue eyes to vtter.

   • 1928, Robert Byron, The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece, Bloomsbury, 2010, Chapter 6,^[15]

     […] a mythological matron, in a classical helmet, uttering a tear at a rustic cross bound in blue and white ribbons and inscribed TO THE FALLEN—1912,

7. (transitive, obsolete) To offer (something) for sale; to sell.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed's Chronicles, London: John Hunne, The History of Ireland,^[16]

     […] certayne Merchants […] obteyned licence safely to arriue here in Ireland with their wares, and to vtter the same.

   • c. 1594, Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 1,^[17]

     Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law

     Is death to any he that utters them.

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, London: Henry Tomes, Book 2, p. 72,^[18]

     […] at the Olimpian games […] some cam as Merchants to vtter their commodities,

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 51,^[19]

     No infected Stuff [i.e. items made of cloth] to be uttered.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To put (currency) into circulation.

   Synonym: circulate

   • 1564, Proclamation of Elizabeth I of England dated November, 1564, London: Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1565,^[20]

     […] there are […] forrayne peeces of golde, of the like quantitie and fashion (although of lesse value) lyke to an Englyshe Angell, brought hyther, and here vttered and payde for ten shyllynges of syluer, beyng for they lacke of wayght, and for the basenesse of the allay, not worth. vii. shillinges, to the great deceite and losse of the subiectes of this her Realme:

   • 1735, Jonathan Swift, Drapier’s Letters, Letter 3, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, Dublin: George Faulkner, Volume 4, p. 123,^[21]

     There is nothing remaining to preserve us from Ruin, but that the whole Kingdom should continue in a firm determinate Resolution never to receive or utter this FATAL Coin:

   • 1842, cited in Supplement to The Jurist, containing a Digest of All the Reported Cases […] published during the year 1842, p. 49,^[22]

     If two persons jointly prepare counterfeit coin, and then utter it in different shops, apart from each other, but in concert, and intending to share the proceeds, the utterings of each are the joint utterings of both, and they may be convicted jointly.

9. (transitive, obsolete) To show (something that has been hidden); to reveal the identity of (someone).
   • 1535, Miles Coverdale, Coverdale Bible, Genesis 45.1,^[23]

     […] there stode no man by him, whan Ioseph vttred him self vnto his brethren.

   • 1561, William Whittingham et al. (translators), Geneva Bible, Mark 3.12,^[24]

     And he [Jesus] sharpely rebuked them [the unclean spirits], to the end they shulde not vtter him.

10. (transitive, obsolete) To send or put (something) out.
    • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VI, year 37,^[25]

      As fier beyng enclosed in a strayte place, wil by force vtter his flamme […]

    • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, London: Hugh Singleton, “March,” Aegloga Tertia,^[26]

      Seest not thilke same Hawthorne studde,

      How bragly it beginnes to budde,

      And vtter his tender head?

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse otr, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“water-animal, otter”), from *wed- (“water”).

Noun

utter c

1. otter; a mammal of the family Mustelidae

Declension