A clause can be a scary thing. Whether it is a stipulation in a contract or a grammatical concept, people sometimes avoid clauses because they are too difficult to grasp.
A provision or stipulation in a contract, clause is a noun that comes to us from the old French clause, which, if we trace it way back, comes from the Latin clausula “the end, a closing termination.” Circa 1300, the “ending” implication of the word began to fade and was replaced by “article or section of a text.” Legal documents, like prenuptial agreements or job contracts, often contain a clause, or many.