different between valley vs clough

English

Etymology

From Middle English valey, valeye, from Anglo-Norman valey, Old French valee (compare French vallée), from Latin vall?s/vallis. Doublet of vlei.

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?l'?, IPA^(key): /?væli/
• Rhymes: -æli

Noun

valley (plural valleys)

1. An elongated depression between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.

   Synonyms: (poetic) vale; see also Thesaurus:valley
2. The area which drains into a river.
3. Any structure resembling one, e.g., the meeting point of two pitched roofs.
4. The internal angle formed by the intersection of two sloping roof planes.

Hyponyms

• closed-cut valley
• open valley

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• dale
• dell
• vale

Anagrams

• y'all've

Manx

Noun

valley

1. Lenited form of balley.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English clough, clow, clogh, Old English *cl?h, from Proto-Germanic *klanhaz, *klanh? (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cleuch (“gorge; ravine”), Old High German kl?h (in placenames), Old High German klingo, klinga (“brook, cataract, gulf, rapids”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). See also cling, clove.

Alternative forms

• cleugh, cleuch (Scotland)
• cleugh (Northumbria)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?f/, /kla?/

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.

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

2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.

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

3. A cliff; a rocky precipice.
4. (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
5. (dialectal) A wood; weald.

Derived terms

• Howden Clough

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• cloff

Pronunciation

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “clough”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• clough in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.