clue – English noun declension

English noun forms of clue

Noun: clue
Singularclue
Pluralclues

Sample Sentences

  • she had even had in the past a small smug conviction that in the domestic labyrinth she always kept the clue. [1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:]
  • Give me a clue because the question is too vague.
  • Black tracks on the magneto, a hairline crack in the flywheel casing, pitted points or a spitless exhaust — all are clues to potential conkouts [1965, Popular Mechanics, volume 123, number 3, page 140:]
  • The detectives were looking for some clues at the scene of the crime.
  • I had little clue that I was being carefully monitored by the CCTV.

Etymology

1. Variant of clew (“a ball of thread or yarn”), from Middle English clew, clewe, clowe, clue, clwe, clyw, clywe, from Old English clēowen, clīewen, clīowen, clīwen, clȳwe, clȳwen (“ball, sphere; skein”), from Proto-West Germanic *kliuwīn (“ball, clump”), from Proto-Germanic *kliuwīną, *klewô (“bale, ball, clump, mass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up, clump together; lump, swelling”). Sense evolution with reference to the one which the mythical Theseus used to guide him out of the Minotaur's labyrinth. More at clew.
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with Cimbrian khnaul (“ball of yarn”), Dutch kluwe, kluwen (“ball thread or yarn, clew”), German Knäuel (“ballyarn; tangle”), Norwegian Nynorsk kljå (“a loom weight”); also Sanskrit ग्लौ (glau, “the moon; camphor; the earth”). See: Old English Nouns 'clēowen', Dutch Nouns 'kluwe', German Nouns 'Knäuel', Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns 'kljå'.