Clip

How to spell clip

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce clip

What does clip mean?

1. verbTo cut or trim something with shears or scissors, usually a small amount.
2. verbTo attach or fasten something securely using a small gripping device.
3. nounA small device used to hold or grip things together.
4. nounA short section taken from a longer film, video or recording.

Clip in a sentence

• verb

  The gardener will clip the hedge before the weekend.

• verb

  He will clip the badge to his jacket lapel.

• noun

  A paper clip kept the receipts neatly bundled.

• noun

  The news showed a brief clip from the interview.

• verb

  She likes to clip coupons from the weekend newspaper.

• verb

  Please clip the pages together before filing them.

Where does clip come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This short word actually braids together two separate strands of history that have long since merged in spelling. The 'cut' sense comes from Old Norse 'klippa', meaning 'to cut or shear', which Norse settlers brought to England and which originally described shearing wool or trimming hair with shears. The 'fasten' sense comes from a quite different source, the Old English 'clyppan', meaning 'to embrace, clasp or hold tightly', which is why a paper clip grips rather than cuts. Over the centuries these two meanings settled on the same four letters, and the noun for a fastening device grew naturally out of the holding sense, while the noun for a short extract of film grew out of the cutting sense, since a clip is literally something snipped from a longer reel. The spelling is mercifully simple, with the doubled 'p' only appearing in inflected forms such as clipped and clipping.

How the word is built

• clip (single root; no affixes)