# clutch

> English word · Verb · IPA /klʌt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #8,523

## Definitions
1. To seize, as though with claws.
2. To grip or grasp tightly.
3. To win despite being the only remaining player on one's team, against several opponents.
4. To unexpectedly or luckily succeed in a difficult activity.

## Etymology
From Middle English clucchen, clicchen, cluchen, clechen, cleken, from Old English clyċċan (“to clutch, clench”), from Proto-West Germanic *klukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *klukjaną, from Proto-Germanic *klu- (“to ball up, conglomerate, amass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up; lump, mass”).
Cognate with Swedish klyka (“clamp, fork, branch”). The noun is from Middle English cleche, cloche, cloke ("claw, talon, hand"; compare Scots cleuk, cluke, cluik (“claw, talon”)), of uncertain origin, with the form probably assimilated to the verb.
Alternative etymology derives Old English clyċċan from Proto-Germanic *klēk- (“claw, hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *glēk-, *ǵlēḱ- (“claw, hand; to clutch, snatch”). If so, then cognate with Irish glac (“hand”).

## Easily confused with
- **couch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-couch)
- **crunch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-crunch)
- **crotch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-crotch)
- **crutch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-crutch)
- **clutches** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-clutches)
- **clutched** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clutch-vs-clutched)
- **catch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/catch-vs-clutch)
- **cloth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cloth-vs-clutch)
- **church** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/church-vs-clutch)
- **clinch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clinch-vs-clutch)
- **clench** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/clench-vs-clutch)

## Common misspellings (10)
`cclutch`, `cllutch`, `cltuch`, `clucth`, `clutcch`, `clutchh`, `cluthc`, `cluttch`, `cultch`, `lcutch`

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