clause

English Online Dictionary. What means clause‎? What does clause mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English clause, claus, borrowed from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa (Latin diminutive clausula (“close, end; a clause, close of a period”)), from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere (“to shut, close”). See close, its doublet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /klɔːz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /klɔz/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /klɑz/
• Homophone: claws
• Rhymes: -ɔːz

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

2. (grammar) A group of words that contains a subject and a verb; it may be part of a sentence or may constitute the whole sentence, depending on the syntax in each instance.

   Near-synonyms: sentential, sentence

4. (grammar) A verb, its necessary grammatical arguments, and any adjuncts affecting them.
6. (grammar) A verb along with its subject and their modifiers. If a clause provides a complete thought on its own, then it is an independent (superordinate) clause; otherwise, it is dependent (subordinate). (Independent clauses can be sentences; they can also be part of a sentence. Dependent clauses can only be part of a sentence.)

   Hyponyms: main clause, independent clause; subordinate clause, dependent clause, embedded clause; and hyponyms thereof
8. (law) A distinct part of a contract, a will or another legal document.
10. (databases) A constituent (component) of a statement or query.

Usage notes

• In “When it got dark, they went back into the house”, “When it got dark” is a dependent clause within the complete sentence. The independent clause “they went back into the house” could stand alone as a sentence, whereas the dependent clause could not.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• close

Translations

Verb

clause (third-person singular simple present clauses, present participle clausing, simple past and past participle claused)

1. (transitive, shipping) To amend (a bill of lading or similar document).

Further reading

• “clause”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “clause”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Caelus, secula

French

Etymology

From Old French clause, borrowed from Medieval Latin clausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kloz/

Noun

clause f (plural clauses)

1. clause

Further reading

• “clause”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Participle

clause

1. vocative masculine singular of clausus

Middle English

Alternative forms

• clawse, claus

Etymology

From Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklau̯z(ə)/

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

1. sentence, clause
2. statement, line (of a text)
3. writing, text, document, letter
4. A section or portion of a text; a part of a series of quotes
5. (law) A clause, term, or consideration; a section in a legal document.

Descendants

• English: clause

References

• “clause, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.