Word.ws English Dictionary

cloverleaf

UK/ˈkləʊvəliːf//ˈkloʊvɚliːf/

cloverleaf adjective: in the form of the leaf of a clover plant; cloverleafed.

cloverleaf: in the form of the leaf of a clover plant; cloverleafed
Image: Ian Hawfinch, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

cloverleaf (not comparable)

  1. In the form of the leaf of a clover plant; cloverleafed.
    • a fancy cloverleaf motif

Noun

cloverleaf (plural cloverleafs or cloverleaves)

  1. The leaf of a clover plant.
    • Cloverleaves have a pealike flavor and make a nice accent among salad greens.
  2. (US) (with plural cloverleafs or cloverleaves) Ellipsis of cloverleaf interchange.
    • The off-ramp will lead you along the cloverleaf to your next on-ramp.
    • By the time we got into Tulsa Town
      We had eighty-five trucks in all
      But there's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
      And them bears was wall-to-wall.1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall

Verb

cloverleaf (third-person singular simple present cloverleafs, present participle cloverleafing, simple past and past participle cloverleafed)

  1. (intransitive) To turn by following a cloverleaf, or as if by following one.
    • Hay told a military historian that Allen precipitated “the debacle” by “allowing his lead company to pursue the VC down the trail” instead of forming a perimeter and cloverleafing at the first sign of the enemy.2003, David Maraniss, They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967

Forms of cloverleaf

Adjective
alternative formclover-leaf
Noun
pluralcloverleafs
pluralcloverleaves
Verb
third-person singular presentcloverleafs
present participlecloverleafing
past participlecloverleafed
pastcloverleafed

Origin of cloverleaf

From clover + leaf.

Words formed from cloverleaf

Phrases with cloverleaf

Questions about cloverleaf

What does cloverleaf mean?
Cloverleaf means in the form of the leaf of a clover plant; cloverleafed.
What part of speech is cloverleaf?
Cloverleaf can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cloverleaf?
Cloverleaf is pronounced /ˈkləʊvəliːf/ (UK).

Words near cloverleaf in the dictionary

  1. Cloverdale
  2. clovered
  3. clovergrass
  4. clovering
  5. Cloverlea
  6. cloverleaf
  7. cloverleaf interchange
  8. cloverleaf interchanges
  9. cloverleaf model
  10. cloverleaf models
  11. cloverleaf skull

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cloverleaf (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-cloverleaf.ogg.

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