clay

Meaning

1. A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
2. An earth material with ductile qualities.
3. A tennis court surface made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate.
4. The material of the human body.
5. A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
6. A clay pipe for smoking tobacco.
7. (informal) A clay pigeon.
8. Land or territory of a country or other political region, especially when subject to territorial claims.
9. A moth, Mythimna ferrago

mud

earth

dead body

white clay

wet ground

clayey soil

brown clay

clay particle

potter’s clay

clay soil

be muddy

soft ground

hargil

religion

soft mud

wet dirt

slippery ground

bolt agril

whitish soil

white bole

tenacious clay

clay moth

sticky stuff

hard ground

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kleɪ/

From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to glue, paste, stick together”). Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.