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Added 9 October 2026

clam

/klæm/ noun

In Latin: mollusca Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about clam at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Burrowing marine mollusk living on sand or mud; the shell closes with viselike firmness.
A piece of paper money worth one dollar.
Flesh of either hard-shell or soft-shell clams.

verb

Gather clams, by digging in the sand by the ocean.

Origin

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clam (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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