clean
/kliːn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.97 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.
adj
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.
adj
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.
adj
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.
Example Sentences
- "Are these dishes clean? Your room is finally clean! For a baby, happiness is a full bottle and a clean diaper."
- "Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls."
- "Very fine, well-sorted, clean sand with no shells."
- "Scientists believe they have identified the world’s cleanest air, free from particles caused by human activity, located over the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica."
- "clean steel"
- "I don't think he's clean, look at those traps."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *klainī Old English clǣne Middle English clene English clean From Middle English clene, from Old English clāne, clǣne (“clean; pure; clear”), from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“dainty, fine, small; clean”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *glēy- (“gleaming”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to gleam”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German chlei, chli, chlii, chly, klei (“small”), Bavarian gloa, kla, klaa, kloa, kloan (“small; young; insignificant”), Central Franconian and Low German kleen (“small”), Cimbrian khlòan, khlumma (“small”), Dutch and German klein (“small”), Limburgish klein, kléïn (“small”), Luxembourgish kleng (“small”), Mòcheno khloa'n (“small”), Vilamovian klin (“small”), Yiddish קליין (kleyn, “small”), Danish klejn (“delicate, tiny”), Faroese klænur (“slight, slim, thin”), Icelandic klénn (“feeble, poor; indisposed; short; lame; good, pretty, snug”), Norwegian Bokmål klein, klen (“slender; sick; feeble; bad, poor, weak; inept”), Swedish klen (“weak”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kliːn/
- British English: /kliːn/