clay

/kleɪ/
/kleɪ/
IPA guide

Other forms: clays

Clay is a type of soil or dirt that's made of very small particles. You can mold clay into different shapes when it's wet.

Clay is terrible for planting a vegetable garden, but it's perfect for making pottery, tiles, or bricks. You can shape damp clay into a bowl or a cup, and when it's dried and fired in a very hot oven, it becomes extremely hard and sturdy. The Old English root of clay is clæg, "stiff, sticky earth."

Definitions of clay
  1. noun
    water-soaked soil; soft, wet earth
    synonyms: mud
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    types:
    bleaching clay, bleaching earth
    an adsorbent clay that will remove coloring from oils
    mud pie
    a mass of mud that a child has molded into the shape of pie
    mire, slop
    deep soft mud in water or slush
    type of:
    dirt, soil
    the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock
  2. noun
    a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired
    see moresee less
    types:
    show 11 types...
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    adobe
    the clay from which adobe bricks are made
    argil
    a white clay (especially a white clay used by potters)
    china clay, china stone, kaolin, kaoline, porcelain clay, terra alba
    a fine usually white clay formed by the weathering of aluminous minerals (as feldspar); used in ceramics and as an absorbent and as a filler (e.g., in paper)
    red clay
    clay whose redness results from iron oxide
    pipeclay, terra alba
    fine white clay used in making tobacco pipes and pottery and in whitening leather
    bentonite
    an absorbent aluminum silicate clay formed from volcanic ash
    fireclay
    a heat-resistant clay
    Kitty Litter
    granulated clay; placed in a container where it absorbs the waste products of a cat or dog
    potter's clay, potter's earth
    clay that does not contain any iron; used in making pottery or for modeling
    daub
    material used to daub walls
    slip
    potter's clay that is thinned and used for coating or decorating ceramics
    type of:
    dirt, soil
    the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock
  3. noun
    the dead body of a human being
    “honor comes to bless the turf that wraps their clay”
    synonyms: cadaver, corpse, remains, stiff
    see moresee less
    types:
    cremains
    the remains of a dead body after cremation
    type of:
    body, dead body
    a natural object consisting of a dead animal or person
Pronunciation
US
/kleɪ/
UK
/kleɪ/
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