Word.ws English Dictionary

clonk

/klɒŋk/

clonk noun: the abrupt sound of two hard objects coming into contact.

Noun

clonk (plural clonks)

  1. The abrupt sound of two hard objects coming into contact.
    • Our milkman is a jovial character, but not one given to yodelling at the customers on his round. Only the resounding "clonk" of bottles advises us that a couple of pints have been left on the doorstep.1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 154
    • He passed under a low branch now. It hit the top of his helmet with a clonk.1969, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 2, in Slaughterhouse-Five, New York: Dial, published 2005, page 54
  2. A stick-like tool used to strike the surface of the water and produce a sound that causes nearby fish to attack the bait.

Verb

clonk (third-person singular simple present clonks, present participle clonking, simple past and past participle clonked)

  1. To make such a sound.
    • One half-naked kid with a garrison cap clonked on the marimba; the little black rubber balls on his sticks struck fast.1953 September 18, Saul Bellow, chapter XVII, in The Adventures of Augie March […], New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 371
  2. (informal) To wallop, clobber.

Forms of clonk

Noun
pluralclonks
Verb
third-person singular presentclonks
present participleclonking
past participleclonked
pastclonked

Origin of clonk

Imitative. Compare clink, clank, clunk.

Words that rhyme with clonk

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about clonk

What does clonk mean?
Clonk means the abrupt sound of two hard objects coming into contact.
What part of speech is clonk?
Clonk can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce clonk?
Clonk is pronounced /klɒŋk/ (UK).
What is the plural of clonk?
The plural of clonk is clonks.

Words near clonk in the dictionary

  1. clonism
  2. clonisms
  3. clonitazene
  4. clonitrate
  5. clonixin
  6. clonk
  7. clonked
  8. Clonkeen
  9. clonker
  10. clonkers
  11. clonking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clonk (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-clonk.wav.

Cite this entry: “clonk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clonk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.