clatter

American  

[klat-er] / ˈklæt ər /

verb (used without object)

1. to make a loud, rattling sound, as that produced by hard objects striking rapidly one against the other.

   The shutters clattered in the wind.

2. to move rapidly with such a sound.

   The iron-wheeled cart clattered down the street.

3. to talk fast and noisily; chatter.

   They clattered on and on about their children.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to cause to clatter.

   clattering the pots and pans in the sink.

noun

1. a rattling noise or series of rattling noises.

   The stagecoach made a terrible clatter going over the wooden bridge.

2. noisy disturbance; din; racket.

3. noisy talk; din of voices.

   They had to shout over the clatter at the cocktail party.

4. idle talk; gossip.

clatter British  

/ ˈklætə /

verb

1. to make or cause to make a rattling noise, esp as a result of movement

2. (intr) to chatter

---

noun

1. a rattling sound or noise

2. a noisy commotion, such as one caused by loud chatter

Other Word Forms

• clatterer
  noun
• clatteringly
  adverb
• clattery
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of clatter

before 1050; Middle English clateren, Old English clatr- (in clatrunge ); cognate with Dutch klateren to rattle; see -er ⁶

Explanation

A clatter is a clacking or rattling sound, like the clatter of horse hooves on pavement or the clatter of toys being thrown down a wooden staircase by an angry child. Clatter is also a verb, meaning "to make a continuous rattling or clanking sound." You might clatter down the school hallway in your clogs, or watch your dogs clatter across a frozen pond, their toenails clicking on the ice. Clatter comes from the Old English onomatopoeic clatrung, "a clattering," or simply "noise."

Example Sentences

There’s Mrs. Duggan’s sitting room, for example, with its “faint, high whistling of the gas fire”; and “the weary clatter of half-hearted washing-up” in a depressing cafe.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

Aromatics are where things begin: ginger, garlic, onions and their cousins; the soft clatter of mirepoix or soffritto; a bloom of spices warming in fat.

From Salon • Feb. 8, 2026

Dishes clatter, steam bursts from large cooking pots and music is seeping through the bustling chatter of Russian pensioners, hunched over bowls of free meals in a Saint Petersburg soup kitchen.

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

The scene is a family dinner in which ordinary household noises — the scrapes, plunks and clatter — and speech are pitched at irregular volumes and lack directional focus.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2025

Not I. They had invaded our village with clatter and din, had taken from us the maidan where our children played, and had made the bazaar prices too high for us.

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya

Related Words

• clang
• hurtle