clout

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /klaʊt/ UK /klaʊt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
influence or power; informally, a heavy blow

Her financial clout swayed the board's decision.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · influence or power;... influence power sway pull weight leverage authority wallop

Opposites

weakness powerlessness

Word family

Related forms clouted

Etymology

From Old English clūt 'small piece of cloth or metal, patch'; the sense 'a heavy blow' arose in Middle English, and the figurative 'influence' is a 20th-century American development.

clūt Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# clout

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /klaʊt/
**IPA (UK):** /klaʊt/

## Meanings
1. influence or power; informally, a heavy blow

## Examples
- Her financial clout swayed the board's decision.

## Synonyms
- influence
- power
- sway
- pull
- weight
- leverage
- authority
- wallop

## Antonyms
- weakness
- powerlessness

## Related Forms
- clouted

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: clūt

## Etymology
From Old English clūt 'small piece of cloth or metal, patch'; the sense 'a heavy blow' arose in Middle English, and the figurative 'influence' is a 20th-century American development.

## AI Etymology
Clout comes from Old English clūt 'small piece of cloth or metal, patch'; the sense 'a heavy blow' arose in Middle English, and the figurative 'influence' is a 20th-century American development. The historical trail runs through clūt in Old English. Used as a noun and verb, clout now means "influence or power; informally, a heavy blow", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as clouted. The word is therefore part of the inherited Germanic layer of English, even where later usage has narrowed, broadened, or specialized the sense.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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