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PlainSpell

clip

/klɪp/verb, noun

clip is spelled C-L-I-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,589th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, clip means “To grip tightly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in clip?

Letters4: C-L-I-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing18 times per million words; the 4,589th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is clip?

Clip appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,589th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce clip?

  • /klɪp/
  • [kʰl̥ɪp]

Clip has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-clip.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of clip

  • clips present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • clipping participle, present
  • clipped participle, past
  • clipt participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does clip mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To grip tightly.

  2. 2

    To fasten with a clip.

    Please clip the photos to the pages where they will go.

  3. 3

    archaicTo hug, embrace.

  4. 4

    slangTo collect signatures, generally with the use of a clipboard.

  5. 5

    To cut, especially with scissors or shears as opposed to a knife etc.

    She clipped my hair with her scissors.

  6. 6

    To curtail; to cut short.

  7. 7

    informalTo strike with the hand.

    I’ll clip ye round the lugs!

  8. 8

    To hit or strike, especially in passing.

    The car skidded off the road and clipped a lamppost.

  9. 9

    To perform an illegal tackle, throwing the body across the back of an opponent's leg or hitting him from the back below the waist while moving up from behind unless the opponent is a runner or the action is in close line play.

  10. 10

    To cut off a signal level at a certain maximum value.

  11. 11

    To discard (an occluded part of a model or scene) rather than waste resources on rendering it.

  12. 12

    To move (through or into) (a rendered object or barrier).

    The camera keeps clipping that ceiling.

noun

  1. 1

    Something which clips or grasps; a device for attaching one object to another.

    Use this clip to attach the check to your tax form.

  2. 2

    An unspecified, but normally understood as rapid, speed or pace.

    She reads at a pretty good clip.

  3. 3

    obsoleteAn embrace.

  4. 4

    A frame containing a number of rounds of ammunition which is intended to be inserted into an internal magazine of a firearm to allow for rapid reloading.

  5. 5

    colloquialproscribedA removable magazine of a firearm.

  6. 6

    A projecting flange on the upper edge of a horseshoe, turned up so as to embrace the lower part of the hoof; a toe clip or beak.

  7. 7

    ScotlandUKA gaff or hook for landing the fish, as in salmon fishing.

  8. 8

    Something which has been clipped from a larger whole

  9. 9

    The product of a single shearing of sheep.

  10. 10

    A season's crop of wool.

  11. 11

    A section of video taken from a film, broadcast, or other longer video.

    The morning news today played a clip of last night's debate.

  12. 12

    A short piece of audio (shortened version of audio clip, or alternatively clipping of audio).

  13. 13

    A newspaper clipping.

  14. 14

    An act of clipping, such as a haircut.

    I went into the salon to get a clip.

  15. 15

    The condition of something, its state.

    Deeky the clip of that aad wife ower thor!

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Clip in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmaintenir (to grip tightly), pincer (to fasten with a clip), pince (something which clips or grasps; a device for…), accolade, étreinte ((obsolete) an embrace), découper (to cut, especially with scissors or shears as…)
Germanfestklemmen, klammern (to grip tightly), klemmen (to fasten with a clip), Klips, Clips, Klammer (something which clips or grasps; a device for…)
Portugueseagarrar (to grip tightly), grampear (to fasten with a clip), clipe, clips (something which clips or grasps; a device for…), abraço, amplexo ((obsolete) an embrace)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does clip come from?

From Middle English clippen, cleppen, clüppen, from Old English clyppan (“to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *glemb-, *glembʰ- (“lump, clump, clod, clamp”). Cognate with Old Frisian kleppa, klippa (“to hug, embrace”), Middle High German klimpen, klimpfen (“to contract tightly, constrict, squeeze”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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