clack
Americanverb (used without object)
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clacks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clacked,
past participle, past
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clacking
present participle
-
to make a quick, sharp sound, or a succession of such sounds, as by striking or cracking.
The loom clacked busily under her expert hands.
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to talk rapidly and continually or with sharpness and abruptness; chatter.
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to cluck or cackle.
verb (used with object)
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clacks,
present (3rd person singular)
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clacked,
past participle, past
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clacking
present participle
-
to utter by clacking.
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to cause to clack.
He clacked the cup against the saucer.
noun
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clacks
plural
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a clacking sound.
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something that clacks, as a rattle.
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rapid, continual talk; chatter.
verb
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to make or cause to make a sound like that of two pieces of wood hitting each other
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(intr) to jabber
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a less common word for cluck
noun
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a short sharp sound
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a person or thing that produces this sound
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chatter
-
Also called: clack valve. a simple nonreturn valve using either a hinged flap or a ball
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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clacksimple
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clackssimple
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have clackedperfect
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has clackedperfect
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am clackingprogressive
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are clackingprogressive
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is clackingprogressive
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have been clackingperfect progressive
-
has been clackingperfect progressive
Past
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clackedsimple
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had clackedperfect
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was clackingprogressive
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were clackingprogressive
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had been clackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clack
1200–50; Middle English clacken; imitative
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There is the intermittent purr of generators, dogs barking, and, from time to time, the dry clack of domino tiles echoing in the street.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
"I see it - just two metres, three metres... click, clack, bang," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Imagine “the incessant clack of cowboy boots against the cobblestones” that could have been, he thinks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
I will read each new directive from my political leadership and clack away at my keyboard to implement it as best as I can.
From Slate ● Feb. 7, 2025
Yellow beads, on the tips of her black braids, clack.
From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
TikTok serves up step-by-step mise en place with soft jazz and fingernail clacks; mukbang creators rake in millions by eating crab legs in front of a ring light.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2025
It is a kitchen of clicks and clacks, of ASMR, of packets ripped open and weekly restock hauls.
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2025
Over the course of four decades, Oscar-winning sound designer Richard King has accumulated a library of tens of thousands of thuds, thwacks, clacks and other original recordings, yet he’s still always searching for something new.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
During one section, a musician clacks out a repetitive, pulsing rhythm, punctuated by steady puffs on a flute.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2022
People cheer for us, and Rosa waves and clacks her clappers in the air and calls, “Hi!” and “Thank you!”
From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen
When friends clacked at keyboards, examined patients, or taught middle schoolers math, I bicycled Arthur's froggy legs because humans aren't born knowing how to pass gas.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2022
Fans whirred and prayer beads softly clacked as they listened.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
They might have growled, hissed, clicked or even bill clacked, opening and closing their beaks to make a clattering sound.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 10, 2022
He specializes in down-to-earth poetry, clacked out impromptu on his manual 1928 Remington Portable No. 2.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2021
The trees clacked and creaked in the wind.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
To be completely fair, if Perkins sought out to make a film that was brutal for brutality’s sake, I might not even be sitting here, clacking away on my keyboard.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2025
Case in point: When Oppenheimer climbs the Trinity test tower in the desert during a windstorm, King’s team added the sound of clacking cables and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
Sound: the whirring and clacking of many machines.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
The din of clacking keyboards grew noticeably softer for a minute or two, as we all made an effort to gently swipe our keys subtly rather than banging them like we were auditioning for Stomp.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2023
"And worse," the old forester would add, clacking his wooden teeth.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
