clown
/ˈklaʊ̯n/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.93 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
noun
noun
A clownfish.
Example Sentences
- "Apart from the many instances in which Stalin himself held the top position-as philosopher, theoretician, statesman, strategist, economist, etc.--it was known, for example, who was the greatest painter, biologist, or circus clown."
- "Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown"
- "He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks."
- ""The dealers snatched at the state of intellectual exhaustion and scepticism of all values that followed the first world war to abolish values and substitute for them an arbitrary mumbo-jumbo of occultism and pseudo-Freudianism, which they tagged on to the works of studio clowns like Picasso and Modigliani and the like.""
- "Doc Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays, Turns into the Hulk – Ain’t he unglamour-rays! [unglamorous] Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull, Ain’t no monster, clown. Who is as lovable As ever-lovin’ Hulk? - Hulk! Hulk!"
- "Everything’s on the table, the specs are there in the RFP and can’t be changed by some clown in the Air Force who happens to come up with a new idea."
Etymology
From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc. Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above. Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈklaʊ̯n/
- British English: /ˈklaʊ̯n/