clue
Americannoun
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clues
plural
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anything that serves to guide or direct in the solution of a problem, mystery, etc..
It is up to Aurora to piece together the clues and solve the murder before she becomes the next victim.
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a phrase or word provided as a hint to help find an answer or response in a crossword puzzle, on a game show, etc..
The celebrity editor's name was featured as a clue on the long-running quiz show.
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an insight into or knowledge about something.
As a kid from the suburbs, Patrick has lived a sheltered life and doesn't have a clue how to survive on his own.
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clew.
verb (used with object)
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clues,
present (3rd person singular)
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clued,
past participle, past
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cluing
present participle
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to direct or point out by a clue.
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to help find (an answer in a puzzle or quiz) by providing a clue.
The four-letter “nose” was clued as “characteristic smell of wine.”
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clew.
verb phrase
noun
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something that helps to solve a problem or unravel a mystery
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to be completely baffled
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to be completely ignorant or incompetent
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verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cluesimple
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cluessimple
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have cluedperfect
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has cluedperfect
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am cluingprogressive
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are cluingprogressive
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is cluingprogressive
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have been cluingperfect progressive
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has been cluingperfect progressive
Past
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cluedsimple
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had cluedperfect
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was cluingprogressive
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were cluingprogressive
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had been cluingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clue
First recorded in 1350–1400; variant spelling of clew
Explanation
A clue is a piece of evidence that helps solve a problem, or it's a slight hint. When you’re in the dark about the surprise party your friends are planning, they'll say, “She doesn’t have a clue!” When you first join the police force, you’re mostly just walking the beat. But when you’re promoted to detective, your job is to look for that big clue that will help you solve the case. The original Middle English word was clew, which meant “a ball of thread.” If you were trapped in a labyrinth, you could follow the clew to help find your way out.
Vocabulary lists containing clue
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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"Mysteries of the Ancient Past"
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"The Clever Old Woman" and "Argument"
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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:
One possible clue to women's slightly higher long-term returns lies in how often they buy and sell their investments, with Barclays data showing that women trade around half as frequently as men.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
"This previously hidden microglial shift, now uncovered by innovations in technology and thinking, may be an important clue to help us complete the puzzle."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
One clue: The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits at the end of July fell to an unadjusted 175,000 — one of the lowest levels in 60 years.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
One clue may be a report that Walter tapped insurers to fund more deals than the Dodgers acquisition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
“Let them get serious about helping us win this war, and we’ll clue them in. Look, I really have to get back.”
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
For the researcher Altin, there are clues in Homer's writing that he says shows the poet came from the area.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
The market will be scouring the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting on Wednesday for any clues on the trajectory of rates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Minutes to the recent Federal Reserve meeting, where U.S. interest rates were left on hold, will be closely monitored for any clues on whether rates could rise next month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Both types of objects have long been sought because they can provide important clues about how stars form and evolve.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
"Let's look around for some clues, and maybe we can ask Amanda about the pony later."
From "Pony Problems: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #3" by Carolyn Keene
How could the clueless become clued if their peers weren’t picking on their every lame move?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
But now they are now clued in to their fortuitous timing.
From Barron's ● Apr. 1, 2026
I don’t know how much Chloe knows about Greg/Gary’s past misdeeds, but I wonder if she’s clued in on his current plan and that’s where this awareness comes from?
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2025
What first clued me in to the remarkable frequency with which complaints about men’s cleanliness appear on Reddit was repeatedly encountering one of the most awfully evocative euphemisms in the English language: skid mark.
From Slate ● May 17, 2024
“He’s known that you were clued in from the start, because I told him about our conversations,” Coach says.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
Anyone can check it out, but it’s geared toward cluing in ranchers in an effort to prevent wolf-livestock conflict.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2025
Some still maintain that the Knicks’ envelope was frozen or had a bent corner, cluing in NBA Commissioner and native New Yorker David Stern as to which envelope to choose.
From Washington Times ● May 9, 2023
Not long after, there’s Jim Carroll’s rocking, doom-soaked “People Who Died,” cluing viewers in to the fact that a whole bunch of these people aren’t long for the picture.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2021
The lighting, by Peter Kaczorowski, is aptly moody while cluing us in to the play’s many kinds of reality.
From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2021
Without cluing in Byrd or even Ray, Axel starts back up the driveway.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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.
