different between clutter vs clump

English

Etymology

From Middle English cloteren (“to form clots; coagulate; heap on”), from clot (“clot”), equivalent to clot +? -er (frequentative suffix). Compare Welsh cludair (“heap, pile”), cludeirio (“to heap”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?/, [?kl???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

clutter (countable and uncountable, plural clutters)

1. (uncountable) A confused disordered jumble of things.
2. (uncountable) Background echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
3. (countable) A group of cats; the collective noun for cats.
   • 2008, John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories, Introduction

     Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

4. (obsolete) Clatter; confused noise.
   • October 14 1718, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift

     I hardly heard a word of news or politicks, except a little clutter about sending some impertinent presidents du parliament to prison

   • 1835, William Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett, James Paul Cobbett, Selections from Cobbett's political works (volume 1, page 33)

     It was then you might have heard a clutter: pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs and jordens, all put themselves in motion at once […]

Derived terms

• surface clutter
• volume clutter

Translations

Verb

clutter (third-person singular simple present clutters, present participle cluttering, simple past and past participle cluttered)

1. To fill something with clutter.
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To clot or coagulate, like blood.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

3. To make a confused noise; to bustle.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Goose

     It [the goose] cluttered here, it chuckled there.

4. To utter words hurriedly, especially (but not exclusively) as a speech disorder (compare cluttering).

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glemb?- (“lump, clamp”).Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe (compare German Klumpen). Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

clump (plural clumps)

1. A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass.
2. A thick group or bunch, especially of bushes or hair.
   • 1954, Lucian Hobart Ryland (translator), Adelaide of Brunswick (originally by Marquis de Sade)

     clump of trees

3. A dull thud.
4. The compressed clay of coal strata.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Brande & C to this entry?)

5. A small group of trees or plants.
6. (historical) A thick addition to the sole of a shoe.

Derived terms

• clumpy

Translations

to be checked

Verb

clump (third-person singular simple present clumps, present participle clumping, simple past and past participle clumped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To form clusters or lumps.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To gather in dense groups.
3. (intransitive) To walk with heavy footfalls.
4. (transitive, Britain, regional) To strike; to beat.
   • 1912, Mrs. Coulson Kernahan, The Go-Between (page 79)

     There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb!

Derived terms

• clump up

Translations

References

Further reading

• Clump in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)