clay
/kleɪ/
clay noun: a mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
Noun
clay (usually uncountable, plural clays)
- A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
- Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
- An earth material with ductile qualities.
- A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
- The French Open is played on clay.
- The material of the human body.
- From clay we are made.
- Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 10:8-9
- A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
- A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
- A clay pigeon.
- We went shooting clays at the weekend.
- Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.
- Vilnius is rightful Polish clay.
- Synonyms:
- soil
- A moth (Mythimna ferrago).
Verb
clay (third-person singular simple present clays, present participle claying, simple past and past participle clayed)
- To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
- To purify using clay.
- They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies
- The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.1985, Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835, page 200
Proper noun capitalized: Clay
Clay (countable and uncountable, plural Clays)
- A surname originating as an occupation.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.
- When he was about five years old some kids asked Clay why his mother had called him that. And he did not know. But began to wonder.1968, Patrick White, “Clay”, in The Burnt Ones, Penguin Books, page 114
- The lone "nay" came from the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, who defied his party saying his vote was a principled "NO".2025 November 18, Brandon Drenon, “The only 'no' vote on releasing Epstein files”, in BBC
- A diminutive of the male given name Clayton.
- A city in Jefferson County, Alabama.
- A census-designated place in Sacramento County, California.
- A home rule city in Webster County, Kentucky, named after Henry Clay.
- An unincorporated community in Adair County, Missouri.
- A town in Onondaga County, New York, named after Henry Clay.
- An unincorporated community in Franklin Township, Jackson County, Ohio.
- A census-designated place in Burleson County, Texas.
- A town, the county seat of Clay County, West Virginia.
- A ghost town in the town of Komensky, Jackson County, Wisconsin.
- A number of townships in the United States, listed under Clay Township.
- Ellipsis of Clay County.
clay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
clay in Hindi
- mineral substance
- मृत्तिका mŕttikā, चिकनी मिट्टी ciknī miṭṭī
clay in Tamil
- mineral substance
- களிமண் kaḷimaṇ, களி kaḷi
clay in Marathi
- mineral substance
- चिकणमाती cikaṇmātī, माती mātī
clay in Urdu
- mineral substance
- سِفال sifāl, مِٹِّی miṭṭī, گِل gil
More languagesFewer languages
- clay in Bengali
- মৃত্তিকা mrittika
- clay in Telugu
- బంకమన్ను baṅkamannu
- clay in Malayalam
- കളിമണ്ണ് kaḷimaṇṇŭ
- clay in Kannada
- ಸೀರು sīru, ಕಂಪ kampa, ಆವೆ āve, ಅಡುಸು aḍusu
- clay in Punjabi
- ਮਿੱਟੀ miṭṭī
- clay in Odia
- ମାଟି māṭi
- clay in Sanskrit
- मृत्तिका mṛttikā
- clay in Sinhala
- මැටි mæṭi
- clay in Assamese
- পংক poṅko
- clay in Pashto
- رست rost
- clay in Tagalog
- arsilya, luwad
- clay in Arabic
- طِين ṭīn, صَلْصَال ṣalṣāl
- clay in Malay
- tanah liat, lempung
- clay in Indonesian
- tanah liat
- clay in Thai
- ดินเหนียว din-nǐao, ดินนวล din-nuuan
- clay in Vietnamese
- đất sét, sét, đất nện
- clay in Myanmar
- ရွှံ့ hrwam.
Examples of clay in a sentence
- Umber is a pigment made from clay containing iron and manganese oxide.
- Then he impresses the die into the clay to produce a design on the surface.
- I slowly smashed the modeling clay flat with the palm of my hand.
Synonyms of clay
Antonyms
Forms of clay
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | clays |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | clays |
| present participle | claying |
| past participle | clayed |
| past | clayed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Clays |
Origin of clay
From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *gleyH- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.
From a Middle English occupational name for a clay worker, or a habitational name, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”).
Words formed from clay
- Clay Center
- Clay County
- Clay Cross
- Claymate
- ball clay
- boulder clay
- brickclay
- china clay
- claybank
- Clay Banks
- claybed
- clay cake
- clay-cold
- clay-colored thrush
- clay court
- claycourt
- clay courter
- clay eater
- clayen
- clayey
- clay feet
- clayfield
- clayhead
- claying
- clayish
- claykicker
- Clay Lake
- clayless
- claylike
- claymation
- claypan
- clay pigeon
- claypit
- clay pit
- clay shale
- clay slate
- clayster
- claystone
- clay tablet
- Clayton
- clayware
- claywork
- common clay
- Draycott in the Clay
- feet of clay
- fiber clay
- fire clay
- Holton le Clay
- iron clay
- light clay
- make bricks without clay
- modeling clay
- modelling clay
- nanoclay
- nonclay
- organoclay
- paper clay
- pipeclay
- potter's clay
- salt clay
Phrases with clay
- clay up
- clay pits
- fibre clay
- Henry Clay
- clay courts
- clay slates
- London Clay
- Oxford Clay
- Clay Frisian
- clay pigeons
- clay tablets
- yard of clay
8 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with clay
Questions about clay
- What does clay mean?
- Clay means a mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
- What is clay in Hindi?
- Clay in Hindi is मृत्तिका (mŕttikā), चिकनी मिट्टी (ciknī miṭṭī). See Clay meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is clay?
- Clay can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce clay?
- Clay is pronounced /kleɪ/.
- What is the plural of clay?
- The plural of clay is clays.
Words near clay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clay (page history and authors); Clay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-clay.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.