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clearinghouse

American  
[kleer-ing-hous] / ˈklɪər ɪŋˌhaʊs /
Or clearing house

noun

clearinghouses plural
  1. a place or institution where mutual claims and accounts are settled, as between banks.

  2. a central institution or agency for the collection, maintenance, and distribution of materials, information, etc.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of clearinghouse

First recorded in 1825–35

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:

“Widow’s Bay” is this season’s sleeper hit because the show is a horror trope clearinghouse.

From Salon Jun. 18, 2026

The clearinghouse will serve as a security coordination layer, using advanced AI capabilities to identify, test and fix security vulnerabilities across massive volumes of open-source code.

From The Wall Street Journal May 28, 2026

The U.S.’s biggest rival has long served as a clearinghouse for American and European-made components that could be diverted to drone factories in Iran and Russia, according to the former Treasury officials.

From The Wall Street Journal May 6, 2026

The clearinghouses hold the collateral on each side of a contract, transferring risk from trading parties to the clearinghouse itself.

From Barron's Mar. 24, 2026

The Line Superintendent said that he would be able to get in touch with the crews in the morning; he suggested the rural telephone supervisor, who was a clearinghouse of information for miles around...

From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford

You lend to the clearinghouses whatever you need, and we’re going to back you’,” he told an oral history project at the University of California, Berkeley.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 23, 2026

The clearinghouses hold the collateral on each side of a contract, transferring risk from trading parties to the clearinghouse itself.

From Barron's Mar. 24, 2026

In the world of traditional brokerages, buying or selling equities has meant interacting with layers of intermediaries: brokers; custodians, clearinghouses.

From MarketWatch Feb. 19, 2026

Regulators say there is a simple fix: Allow more clearinghouses to deposit their cash at the Fed.

From New York Times May 9, 2023

Thus, clearinghouses and other collectives comprise one option that has succeeded in providing for use of a work.

From Library of Congress Workshop on Etexts by Library of Congress

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