clove
UK/kləʊv//kloʊv/
clove noun: a very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree. Also the simple past of cleave.
Noun (1)
clove (countable and uncountable, plural cloves)
- A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
- A clove tree, of the species Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Caryophyllus aromaticus), native to the Moluccas (Indonesian islands), which produces the spice.
- An old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.
- Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6+¹⁄₂ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. The 'Pathway' points out the etymology of the word cloves; it calls them ' claves or nails.' It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364...1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 27, page 202
- By a statute of 9 Hen. VI. it was ordained that the wey of cheese should contain 32 cloves of 7 lbs. each, i.e. 224 lbs., or 2 cwts.1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 169
Noun (2)
clove (plural cloves)
- One of the small bulbs that make up the large, compound bulb in garlic, shallots, or similar plants.
- clove of garlic, garlic clove, clove of a sea-onion, clove of shallot, cloves of bulbs
- A segment or natural division of a fruit.
- [W]e hurried by […] past the meatfaced woman, a butcher's dame, nuzzling thirstily her clove of orange.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 2: Nestor]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 32
Noun (3)
clove (plural cloves)
Also used as
clove is also the simple past of cleave.
clove meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
clove in Hindi
- spice
- लौंग lauṅg, लवंग lavaṅg
- Syzygium aromaticum
- लौंग lauṅg, लवंग lavaṅg
clove in Tamil
- spice
- கிராம்பு kirāmpu
clove in Marathi
- spice
- लवंग lavaṅga
- constitutive bulb of garlic
- पाकळी pākḷī
clove in Bengali
- spice
- লবঙ্গ loboṅgo
More languagesFewer languages
- clove in Telugu
- లవంగము lavaṅgamu, పాయ pāya
- clove in Malayalam
- കരയാമ്പൂ karayāmpū, ഗ്രാമ്പു grāmpu
- clove in Kannada
- ಲವಂಗ lavaṅga
- clove in Gujarati
- લવિંગ laviṅg
- clove in Odia
- ଲବଙ୍ଗ labaṅga
- clove in Sanskrit
- लवंग lavaṃga
- clove in Assamese
- লং loṅ
- clove in Nepali
- ल्वाङ lwāṅ
- clove in Pashto
- لونګ lawong
- clove in Tagalog
- kalabumpako, klabos
- clove in Arabic
- قَرَنْفُل qaranful, فَصّ faṣṣ
- clove in Malay
- bunga cengkih, cengkih, ulas, siung
- clove in Indonesian
- cengkih, siung
- clove in Persian
- قرنفل qaranfol
- clove in Thai
- กานพลู gaan-pluu
- clove in Vietnamese
- đinh hương, tép
- clove in Myanmar
- လေးညှင်းပွင့် le:hnyang:pwang., လေးညှင်း le:hnyang:
- Dhivehi
- ކަރަންފޫ karan̊fū
Examples of clove in a sentence
- The truck clove a path through the ice.
- The wings clove the foggy air.
- They might also have goat birria, red and earthy from chiles, cinnamon, and cloves.
Forms of clove
| plural | cloves |
|---|
Origin of clove
From Middle English clove, an alteration of earlier clowe, borrowed from the first component of Old French clou (de girofle) (modern French clou de girofle), from Latin clāvus (“nail”) for its shape. Also see clāva (“knotty branch, club”). Doublet of clou and clavus.
From Middle English clove, from Old English clufu, from Proto-West Germanic *klubu, from Proto-Germanic *klubō, related to clēofan (“to cleave, split”), hence with the verbal etymology hereafter.
Borrowed from Dutch klove (now kloof). Doublet of kloof.
Words formed from clove
- clove camphor
- cloved
- clove gilliflower
- clove gillyflower
- cloveless
- clove lilli pilli
- clove pink
- cloveroot
- clovetree
- clovewort
Phrases with clove
Words that rhyme with clove
41 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- strove
- throve
- trove
- wove
- Arnold's Cove
- arrove
- belove
- Bird Cove
- Bishop's Cove
- Brent's Cove
- Bryant's Cove
- byhove
- Chance Cove
- Coachman's Cove
- Cox's Cove
- flower of Jove
- Flower's Cove
- Frenchman's Cove
- gove
- Jemmy's Cove
- King's Cove
- Lewin's Cove
- Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove
- Lord's Cove
- Miles Cove
- Norman's Cove-Long Cove
- Parker's Cove
- Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove
- Pool's Cove
- Port au Port West-Aguathuna-Felix Cove
- Pouch Cove
- Sally's Cove
- Salmon Cove
- Sandy Cove
- shove
- slove
- Small Point-Adam's Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove
- St. Jacques-Coomb's Cove
- Tilt Cove
- Upper Island Cove
- Warren Grove
Questions about clove
- What does clove mean?
- Clove means a very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
- What is clove in Hindi?
- Clove in Hindi is लौंग (lauṅg), लवंग (lavaṅg). See Clove meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is clove?
- Clove is a noun.
- How do you pronounce clove?
- Clove is pronounced /kləʊv/ (UK).
- What is the plural of clove?
- The plural of clove is cloves.
Words near clove in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clove (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-clove.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clove.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clove. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.