clue

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (15)  · 
Your clue was the byline "By Laura MacInnis [,] Reuters."

View all »
Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun Something that serves to guide or direct in the solution of a problem or mystery.
  2. transitive verb To give (someone) guiding information: Clue me in on what's happening.
  3. noun Variant of clew1.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Sometimes a clue is a series of three words or phrases separated by dots and this type of clue indicates that the word on the card will fit all three clues.
  • But—where is the The vicar, who seemed to have been putting two and two carefully together in his mind, cleared his throat: ‘Do I understand,’ he said, ‘that you have discovered a what they call a clue to the mystery No,’ said Peter. —  Busman’s Honeymoon
  • Take care Another clue is the areas in which he operates. —  Seven Little Crosses In A Notebook - A Short Story by Georges Simenon
  • The other clue is the misuse of the indefinite article 'a' in 'a alley.' —  The Twelfth Card
  • Coincidence; that was what you called a clue that you were too lazy or too scared to run down. —  Murder Can Be Fun
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 119 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

clue:   clues
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Variant of clew1 (from Theseus's use of a ball of thread as a guide through the Cretan labyrinth).
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/klu/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a week.

Recently looked up

Lycaon · roasting · recent · crisscrossed · crossref

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich