clue
Meanings
- A strand of yarn etc. as used to guide one through a labyrinth; something which points the way, a guide.
- Information which may lead one to a certain point or conclusion.
- An object or a kind of indication which may be used as evidence.
- Insight or understanding ("to have a clue [about]" or "to have clue". See have a clue, clue stick)
- The text that indicates an answer in a crossword puzzle.
- To provide with a clue.
- To provide someone with information which they lack (often used with "in" or "up").
- Alternative form of clew.
- The board game Cluedo whose goal is to solve the mystery of a fictitious murder.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Variant of clew (“a ball of thread or yarn”), from Middle English clew, clewe, clowe, clue, clwe, clyw, clywe, from Old English clēowen, clīewen, clīowen, clīwen, clȳwe, clȳwen (“ball, sphere; skein”), from Proto-West Germanic *kliuwīn (“ball, clump”), from Proto-Germanic *kliuwīną, *klewô (“bale, ball, clump, mass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up, clump together; lump, swelling”). Sense evolution with reference to the one which the mythical Theseus used to guide him out of the Minotaur's labyrinth. More at clew. Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian khnaul (“ball of yarn”), Dutch kluwe, kluwen (“ball thread or yarn, clew”), German Knäuel (“ballyarn; tangle”), Norwegian Nynorsk kljå (“a loom weight”); also Sanskrit ग्लौ (glau, “the moon; camphor; the earth”).