clutter

[kluht-er]

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verb (used with object)

to fill or litter with things in a disorderly manner: All kinds of papers cluttered the top of his desk.

verb (used without object)

British Dialect. to run in disorder; move with bustle and confusion.
British Dialect. to make a clatter.
to speak so rapidly and inexactly that distortions of sound and phrasing result.

noun

a disorderly heap or assemblage; litter: It's impossible to find anything in all this clutter.
a state or condition of confusion.
confused noise; clatter.
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.

Origin of clutter

1550–60; variant of clotter (now obsolete), equivalent to clot + -er⁶

Related formso·ver·clut·ter, verb (used with object)un·clut·ter, verb (used with object)un·clut·tered, adjective

Synonyms for clutter

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5. mess, disorder, jumble.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for clutter

confusion, litter, strew, muddle, rummage, huddle, shuffle, tumble, hodgepodge, chaos, medley, derangement, jumble, disorder, scramble, untidiness, ataxia, melange, snarl, dirty

Examples from the Web for clutter

Contemporary Examples of clutter

Magazines are the only thing in my apartment that qualify as clutter.
I’m a Digital Hoarder
Lizzie Crocker
December 17, 2014
Using the above apps can cut out the clutter, get you the best deals right away, and streamline your travels.
The Best Travel Apps for Road Warriors
Matthew Kepnes
May 27, 2014
Picking real targets from false targets and clutter is still down to operators.
Tomorrow’s Stealthy Subs Could Sink America’s Navy
Bill Sweetman
May 12, 2014
The real, true, unguarded details tend to cut through the clutter.
Jon Huntsman: The Only Cool Republican?
McKay Coppins
April 15, 2011
The problem with thinning out this clutter lies in the fact that any American citizen 35 or older can be president.
All the Also-Rans for President
Jack W. Germond
March 29, 2011

Historical Examples of clutter

They stood knee-deep in the clutter and lumber, facing each other abjectly.
The Gentleman From Indiana
Booth Tarkington
He spread a tarpaulin amid the clutter amidships and they sat down.
The Harbor of Doubt
Frank Williams
She was stretching her hand out to Drury, where he lay unconscious, deep in the clutter.
In a Little Town
Rupert Hughes
"It'll be a relief for most folks not to have the muss and the clutter," said Ellen's mother.
Christmas
Zona Gale
In the center of the table, surrounded by the clutter, sat an oblong box.
Damned If You Don't
Gordon Randall Garrett

British Dictionary definitions for clutter

clutter

verb

(usually tr often foll by up) to strew or amass (objects) in a disorderly manner
(intr) to move about in a bustling manner
(intr) to chatter or babble

noun

a disordered heap or mass of objects
a state of disorder
unwanted echoes that confuse the observation of signals on a radar screen

Word Origin for clutter

C15 clotter, from clotteren to clot

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for clutter

1550s, "to collect in heaps," variant of clotern "to form clots, to heap on" (c.1400); related to clot (n.). Sense of "to litter" is first recorded 1660s. Related: Cluttered; cluttering.

1570s, "things lying in heaps or confusion," from clutter (v.); the "litter" sense is from 1660s.