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clem

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clem¹

  • /klɛm/

Rhymes with -ɛm

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English *clemmen, *clammen, from Old English clemman, clæmman (“to press, surround”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch klemmen (“to jam, pinch, stick”), German klemmen (“to jam, clamp; to be stuck, stick [to a surface]”).

verb clems · clemming · clemmed · clam

  1. UK, dialectal, intransitive, transitive To be hungry; starve. "[…] Here he's back home again, and without work, and without a penny, and thou knows t' little one and I were pretty well clemmed to death when thou got us a bit o' bread and meat last night. We were that!"

clem²

  • /klɛm/

Rhymes with -ɛm

Where it comes from

From Old English clām (“paste, mortar, mud, clay, poultice”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaim, equivalent to cloam. Similar linguistic development led to the Northumbrian pronunciation of hyem, equivalent to the RP home.

noun clems

  1. Geordie, Teesside, slang A brick or stone.
  2. slang One stone (unit of mass).
  3. Geordie, slang, vulgar A testicle.

Similar: clemmy

clem³

  • /klɛm/

Rhymes with -ɛm

verb clems · clemming · clemmed

  1. alternative Alternative form of clam (“to adhere”).

Clem⁴

Rhymes with -ɛm

Where it comes from

Shortening.

proper noun

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Clement.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Clementine.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: wait, pio, clumse, cleep, cluck, chig, glutch, cham, chuckle, clepe, beef, sleck, crunkle, chud, clamor, clit

noun

Similar: clemmy

Translations

Every language

name unisex name

FrançaisClém

name male name

FrançaisClém

name female name

FrançaisClém

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Cite this
MLA

"clem." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/clem. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

clem. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/clem

Chicago

"clem." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/clem.

BibTeX
@misc{clem_2026,
  title = {clem},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/clem},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}