clay
/kleɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.29 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
Uncountable
noun
A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
Uncountable
noun
Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.
Humorous; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]"
- "The French Open is played on clay."
- "From clay we are made."
- "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay."
- "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand."
- "We went shooting clays at the weekend."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *gloyHós Proto-Germanic *klajjaz Proto-West Germanic *klaij Old English clǣġ Middle English cley English clay From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.