Clutter

How to spell clutter

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce clutter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does clutter mean?

1. nounA disordered, crowded collection of things that fills a space untidily.
2. verbTo fill or cover a space with a disordered mass of objects.

Clutter in a sentence

• noun

  The kitchen counter disappeared under a week of clutter.

• verb

  Old receipts and pens clutter every drawer in the desk.

• noun

  She spent the weekend clearing the clutter from the spare room.

• verb

  Try not to clutter the hallway with shoes and bags.

Where does clutter come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Clutter grew out of the Middle English word 'clotter', meaning to form into clumps or to gather into a mass, which was itself built on 'clot', a lump of something thickened or congealed. The original sense was very physical: things that had clotted or massed together untidily. Over the 1500s and 1600s the spelling and sound drifted toward 'clutter', perhaps blended with the noise word 'clatter', and the meaning broadened from a literal heap to any confused, crowded jumble of objects. By the modern period it settled into today's twin uses, both the messy collection itself and the act of crowding a space with it. The shared ancestry with 'clot' is a handy memory aid for the spelling, since both keep the simple cl- start and a single internal consonant before the doubled t.

How the word is built

• clutter (from clot/clotter: to form into a clump or mass)
• -er (frequentative verb ending)