clutter

CEFRB2

/ˈklʌtə(ɹ)/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A collection of untidy things in a place.

  2. 02

    verb

    To fill a place with too many untidy things.

Examples

  • I try not to clutter up my room with junk.

  • There's too much clutter in the house now that we have two kids.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈklʌɾɚ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Background echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.

  2. A confused disordered jumble of things.

  3. A Sperner family.

More examples

In context

  • 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

  • He saw what a Clutter there was with Huge, Over-grown Pots, Pans, and Spits.

  • That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The desk was covered in papers and books, creating a messy blank that annoyed him.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”).