clack
Americanverb (used without object)
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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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to utter by clacking.
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to cause to clack.
He clacked the cup against the saucer.
noun
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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
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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
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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:
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
They preen, contort their necks, clack their beaks, renovate their nest and occasionally mate.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2024
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Barraza says, striding through the halls, each clack of his leather boots ringing out like an act of defiance to a society that has long rejected people like him.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
Between songs came the clack and rattle of the carts and walking people.
From "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli
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
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
She visits the market, for instance; he clacks at a typewriter.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2022
The German haunts her: in nightmares, he’s a spider crab three meters high; he clacks his claws and whispers One simple question into her ear.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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
They dipped their shoe polish beaks into the water and clacked and honked.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2022
Antlers clacked on antlers, cartilage snapped, and the breath of three thousand animals rose over the fence.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2019
Cameras clacked and commotion swirled as they held up their hands.
From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2019
Mr. Taphouse’s dæmon, a ragged-looking woodpecker, clacked her beak crossly.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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
All the while, SBF sat totally still, occasionally clacking away at the laptop in front of him.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2023
He made a clacking sound on 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.
