Word.ws English Dictionary

littleneck

US/ˈlɪtəlˌnɛk/

littleneck noun: a small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck.

littleneck: a small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck
Image: Ken Hammond, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

littleneck (plural littlenecks)

  1. (US) A small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck.
    • Put a few dozen washed littlenecks in a large, hot skillet with olive oil.2007 July 18, Mark Bittman, “Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less”, in New York Times

Forms of littleneck

plurallittlenecks

Origin of littleneck

Ellipsis of littleneck clam; from little + neck.

Questions about littleneck

What does littleneck mean?
Littleneck means a small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck.
What part of speech is littleneck?
Littleneck is a noun.
How do you pronounce littleneck?
Littleneck is pronounced /ˈlɪtəlˌnɛk/ (US).
What is the plural of littleneck?
The plural of littleneck is littlenecks.

Words near littleneck in the dictionary

  1. littleleaf
  2. littleleaf disease
  3. Littleman
  4. Littlemill
  5. Littlemore
  6. littleneck
  7. littlenecks
  8. littleness
  9. littlenesses
  10. Littleover
  11. Littlepage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: littleneck (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.

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