clough
/klʌf/noun
clough is spelled C-L-O-U-G-H: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,636th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, clough means “A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of clough is cloughs.
How many letters and syllables are in clough?
| Letters | 6: C-L-O-U-G-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 33,636th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 clough?
Clough appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,636th 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 clough?
- /klʌf/
- /klaʊ/
Clough 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: Clough_-_Canadian_English_(klaʊ).ogg, Clough_-_Canadian_English_(kləf).ogg, En-us-clough.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of clough
- cloughs plural
- cleugh
- cleuch
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does clough mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USA narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.
- 2
A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.
- 3
The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
- 4
A wood; weald.
- 5
Alternative form of cloff (“allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does clough come from?
From Middle English clough, clow, cloȝ, from Old English *clōh, from Proto-West Germanic *klą̄h (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of uncertain origin, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).