clutter
Americanverb (used with object)
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clutters,
present (3rd person singular)
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cluttered,
past participle, past
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cluttering
present participle
verb (used without object)
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clutters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cluttered,
past participle, past
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cluttering
present participle
-
British Dialect. to run in disorder; move with bustle and confusion.
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British Dialect. to make a clatter.
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to speak so rapidly and inexactly that distortions of sound and phrasing result.
noun
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clutters
plural
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a disorderly heap or assemblage; litter.
It's impossible to find anything in all this clutter.
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a state or condition of confusion.
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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.
verb
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to strew or amass (objects) in a disorderly manner
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(intr) to move about in a bustling manner
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(intr) to chatter or babble
noun
-
a disordered heap or mass of objects
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a state of disorder
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unwanted echoes that confuse the observation of signals on a radar screen
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cluttersimple
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clutterssimple
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have clutteredperfect
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has clutteredperfect
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am clutteringprogressive
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are clutteringprogressive
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is clutteringprogressive
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have been clutteringperfect progressive
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has been clutteringperfect progressive
Past
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clutteredsimple
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had clutteredperfect
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was clutteringprogressive
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were clutteringprogressive
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had been clutteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of clutter
1550–60; variant of clotter (now obsolete), equivalent to clot + -er 6
Explanation
The word clutter can mean a messy jumble of objects. The disorganized clutter of shoes, hats, shirts, belts, jackets, and pants makes it impossible to find a thing in your closet! Clutter can describe all those disorderly random things in your purse, but it can also refer to the random echoes that show up on a radar screen. The echos mix with other desired signals and can make it hard to track everything. As a verb, clutter is what you do when you fill up a space with a crazy mix of objects. You may clutter up the attic when you finally clean out that closet!
Vocabulary lists containing clutter
Achievement First 5th Grade IA 1 Words
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Sula
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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:
Sandy Ginther uses a 3-D printer to make custom fixtures that keep clutter at bay.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Classical music CDs and cassette tapes that Monson de Kansky records for ballet class clutter her shelves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
To hide the industrial fixtures, they piled towels, linens and bedding to the ceiling, giving rise to the clutter that became a hallmark of the chain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
And getting readers to care about journalism in a time when tech execs actively ensure real writing is buried under mountains of digital clutter, all fighting for your attention, can be next to impossible.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
But Wagner wasn't the only composer who was guilty of creating unnecessary clutter in the eyes of an iconoclast like Satie.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Retrotransposons, or retroelements, are pieces of DNA that, when transcribed to RNA, code for enzymes that copy RNA back into DNA in the genome -- a self-serving cycle that clutters the genome with retrotransposon DNA.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
A jumble of rectangular timber pieces the size of railroad ties clutters the hillside below, evidence of their morning’s work.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 26, 2023
What if all our acquisitions, effortlessly acquired, started talking back to us, their voices crowding our heads as their presence clutters our lives?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2021
Now, “it just clutters up my house,” Barkley told “The Dan LeBatard Show” last week.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2020
Booth checks to make sure that nothing clutters the passage.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
“This is not cluttered to me,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
“Too often, we’re cluttered, out of stock, or even transactional,” Cara Sylvester, Target’s chief merchandising officer said at the investor meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
"The weather is not good," Aminat Jimoh told AFP as he fried tofu by a cluttered roadside.
From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026
We all accumulate stuff over the years that can make our homes feel cluttered.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
Madame Semele bent down and pulled a wooden cage from the cluttered space beneath her bed, and she took the blinking dormouse from her pocket and placed it into the cage.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
You don’t have to worry about cluttering your living space with titles you’ve read once and may never read again.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2026
In our experience, seamless connecting and no cables cluttering the center console are reasons enough to insist on wireless smartphone interfacing.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 26, 2025
The unloved product was shoved into every available online space, cluttering up the digital landscape with junk and hoaxes while promising a far-off profit and a future of easy living.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
In 2008, The Word magazine coined the phrase "indie landfill" to describe a seemingly endless parade of identikit bloke-bands cluttering the airwaves.
From BBC ● May 8, 2025
There were vile things cluttering up the bottom.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
