# cluck

> English word · Noun · IPA /klʌk/ · frequency rank #64,996

## Definitions
1. The sound made by a hen, especially when brooding, or calling her chicks.
2. Any sound similar to this.
3. A kind of tongue click used to urge on a horse.
4. A setting hen.

## Etymology
From Middle English clokken, clocken, from Old English cloccian (“to cluck, make a noise”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkwōn, from Proto-Germanic *klukkwōną (“to make a sound, cluck”), of imitative origin.
Cognate with Scots clok, clock (“to cluck”), Dutch klokken (“to cluck”), Low German klucken (“to cluck”), German glucken (“to cluck”), Danish klukke (“to cluck”), Swedish klucka (“to cluck”), Icelandic klökkva (“to sob, whine, cluck”).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cluck