clarion
Americanadjective
noun
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an ancient trumpet with a curved shape.
-
the sound of this instrument.
-
any similar sound.
noun
-
a four-foot reed stop of trumpet quality on an organ
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an obsolete, high-pitched, small-bore trumpet
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the sound of such an instrument or any similar sound
adjective
verb
Etymology
Origin of clarion
1275–1325; Middle English < Medieval Latin clāriōn- (stem of clāriō ) trumpet, equivalent to clār- clear + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If you hear the clarion call of the stage, it means you want to be an actor. Clarion means loud and clear, and a clarion call is a call to something that is hard to ignore. A clarion is a medieval horn with a clear sound. Hard to ignore, but also pure and clear in tone. There's nothing shrill about a "clarion call." Martin Luther King Jr.'s clarion call for all races in the U.S. to live together in peace and harmony has lived on after his death.
Vocabulary lists containing clarion
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Now I See! Synonyms for "Clear"
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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.
The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss., told this story last year: When the future Chargers wideoout was 6, his mother signed him up for flag football in Texas.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2026
Some of the most arresting work came from the Clarion Choir.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
Its landlord, Clarion Housing Group, did receive a grant from the government to install the new network but also invested its own money.
From BBC • May 28, 2025
The second part of her research concerned samples of manganese nodules, that were collected from the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a large region at depths of four to five thousand meters in the Pacific Ocean.
From Science Daily • Jan. 25, 2024
When the Sillingtons first settled in Clarion County, before there was a state road parallel to the lake, they owned all the land down to the water's edge.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
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.
