Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Clenched |
ClenchedAdjective1. Closed or squeezed together tightly; "a clenched fist"; "his clenched (or clinched) teeth". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "clenched" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references) |
Synonym: ClenchedSynonym: clinched (adj). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: to catch (mechanical engineering), to clench (mechanical engineering). |
Crosswords: Clenched |
| English words defined with "clenched": clenched fist, clinched ♦ fist. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "clenched": Highland Bail. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You're the only man in the world with clenched hair (The Odd Couple; writing credit: Neil Simon) | |
Lyrics | My hands were clenched in fists of rage (American Pie; performing artist: Don McLean) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Oliver standing over him with his fists tightly clenched. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Robert La Follette, three-quarter length, facing front, standing at microphone, with clenched fists. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Woman and others in crowd of demonstrators raising arms with clenched fists, probably Africans. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Clenched fist. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He was a little gouty, and when he slept, his old fingers, stiffened with rheumatism, were clenched in the folds of the clothes |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | His hands clenched convulsively and his teeth set together as he suffered the agony of its penetration |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | They laid her down on the mattress and wiped her forehead while she grunted and clenched her fists |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Clenched" is generally used as a lexical verb (past tense) -- approximately 50.00% of the time. "Clenched" is used about 460 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 50% | 230 | 19,815 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 40.22% | 185 | 22,646 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 9.57% | 44 | 51,500 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.22% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 460 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "clenched": clenched fist ♦ speak through clenched teeth. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "clenched": clenched-fist, clenched-teeth, clenched-to-cracking. | |
Ending with "clenched": half-clenched. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
clenched fist | 13 |
clenched fist record | 3 |
clenched jaw | 2 |
clenched fist heart | 2 |
clenched symptom throat tight tooth | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "clenched"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | flas nëpër dhëmbë (murmur discontentedly, speak through clenched teeth). (various references) | |
Chinese | 握紧 (Clench). (various references) | |
Finnish | nyrkkiin puristettu käsi (clenched hand). (various references) | |
German | mutig (audacious, bold, brave, bravely, clenching, courageous, courageously, gallant, gallantly, game, gamely, gamily, gamy, gritty, heroic, heroically, manful, manfully, pluckily, plucky, spirited, valiant, valiantly), biss zusammen, Biß zusammen. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מקומץ (fisted), קמוץ (closed, economy, frugality, parsimony, retrenchment, saving, thrift). (various references) | |
Italian | stretto (channel, close, exact, fast, firm, narrow, near, packed, precise, sharp, sound, Strait, straits, strict, tight). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 握り拳 (clenched fist). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | にぎり"ぶし (clenched fist). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | enchedclay.(various references) | |
Romanian | zgârcit (accumulator, avaricious, cheese paring, churlish, close, close-fisted, close-handed, costive, covetous, curmudgeon, grasping, hunks, illiberal, iron-fisted, mean, miser, miserly, money grubber, muckworm, parsimonious, penny father, penny-wise, penurious, screw, skimpy, skin, skinflint, sparing, stingy, tight). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "clenched": unclenched. (additional references) | |
| |
"Clenched" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: chenshed, clence, Clencher, clinhed, Clonahoe, clynched, czeched, Lenche. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "clenched" (pronounced kle"nkht) |
| 4 | -e" n kh t | drenched, entrenched, retrenched, wrenched. |
| 3 | -n kh t | branched, bunched, cinched, clinched, crunched, flinched, hunched, inched, launched, lunched, lynched, munched, pinched, punched, relaunched, scrunched, stanched. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-c-d-e-e-h-l-n" | |
-2 letters: clench, leched. | |
-3 letters: eched, hence, leech. | |
-4 letters: cede, dele, dene, eche, heed, heel, held, lech, lend, need. | |
-5 letters: cee, cel, dee, del, den, edh, eel, eld, end, hen, led, lee, nee. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-c-d-e-e-h-l-n" | |
+2 letters: unclenched. | |
+4 letters: chalcedonies, chalcogenide, diencephalic. | |
+5 letters: chalcogenides, phencyclidine, technicalized. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
