clutter
Americanverb (used with object)
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clutters,
present (3rd person singular)
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cluttered,
past participle, past
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cluttering
present participle
verb (used without object)
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clutters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cluttered,
past participle, past
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cluttering
present participle
-
British Dialect. to run in disorder; move with bustle and confusion.
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British Dialect. to make a clatter.
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to speak so rapidly and inexactly that distortions of sound and phrasing result.
noun
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clutters
plural
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a disorderly heap or assemblage; litter.
It's impossible to find anything in all this clutter.
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a state or condition of confusion.
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confused noise; clatter.
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an echo or echoes on a radar screen that do not come from the target and can be caused by such factors as atmospheric conditions, objects other than the target, chaff, and jamming of the radar signal.
verb
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to strew or amass (objects) in a disorderly manner
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(intr) to move about in a bustling manner
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(intr) to chatter or babble
noun
-
a disordered heap or mass of objects
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a state of disorder
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unwanted echoes that confuse the observation of signals on a radar screen
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cluttersimple
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clutterssimple
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have clutteredperfect
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has clutteredperfect
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am clutteringprogressive
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are clutteringprogressive
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is clutteringprogressive
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have been clutteringperfect progressive
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has been clutteringperfect progressive
Past
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clutteredsimple
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had clutteredperfect
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was clutteringprogressive
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were clutteringprogressive
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had been clutteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clutter
1550–60; variant of clotter (now obsolete), equivalent to clot + -er 6
Explanation
The word clutter can mean a messy jumble of objects. The disorganized clutter of shoes, hats, shirts, belts, jackets, and pants makes it impossible to find a thing in your closet! Clutter can describe all those disorderly random things in your purse, but it can also refer to the random echoes that show up on a radar screen. The echos mix with other desired signals and can make it hard to track everything. As a verb, clutter is what you do when you fill up a space with a crazy mix of objects. You may clutter up the attic when you finally clean out that closet!
Vocabulary lists containing clutter
Achievement First 5th Grade IA 1 Words
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Sula
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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.
See Examples For:
And it’s not by accident that coastal habitats are aggressively protected and most of the shoreline is free of mega resorts and architectural clutter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
Some people are just trying to reduce inbox clutter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
It’s to reduce the visual clutter as much as possible in the time you have.
From Salon ● May 5, 2026
It should look calm, refined and elegant, with a soft neutral palette, large typography, no clutter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
Kristi’s garage is full of boxes, bikes, rakes, a snowblower, and a clutter of other things.
From "Rules" by Cynthia Lord
Moreover, could it actually be a good thing that the 5th Circuit clutters SCOTUS’ docket with so many obviously wrong decisions?
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2026
Vanderbilt struggles to find a tone and clutters the film with extra story lines to diminishing results.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025
Retrotransposons, or retroelements, are pieces of DNA that, when transcribed to RNA, code for enzymes that copy RNA back into DNA in the genome -- a self-serving cycle that clutters the genome with retrotransposon DNA.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
But how many more battles and wars, how much more history clutters our minds today than ever occupied theirs.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 28, 2023
Booth checks to make sure that nothing clutters the passage.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
“This is not cluttered to me,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Low-Earth orbit—the zone inhabited by the satellites that give us GPS, remote broadband and weather forecasts—is getting cluttered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
"The weather is not good," Aminat Jimoh told AFP as he fried tofu by a cluttered roadside.
From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026
So she rarely leaves the house — a cramped and densely cluttered property that the family shares with 15 parrots.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
“My mother gave me this hibiscus for Christmas,” he says, putting the potted plant in a sunny spot on his cluttered desk.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
“White tents. Green grass. Blue skies. The mountains. There’s not many things cluttering it up.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
You don’t have to worry about cluttering your living space with titles you’ve read once and may never read again.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2026
In our experience, seamless connecting and no cables cluttering the center console are reasons enough to insist on wireless smartphone interfacing.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 26, 2025
The unloved product was shoved into every available online space, cluttering up the digital landscape with junk and hoaxes while promising a far-off profit and a future of easy living.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
The light had become the putrid green of necrosis, reflected in the bottles of amber tinctures cluttering the shelves.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
