clue

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A piece of information that helps you find an answer or solve a problem.

   The detective found an important clue at the scene.

2. 2
   noun

   Any idea or understanding about something.

   I had no clue that I was being watched.

3. 3
   verb

   To give someone information they did not have.

   Can you clue me in on what happened at the meeting?

Multiword verbs with clue

• clue in Phrasal verb A2

  to give someone information that helps them understand a situation

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Clue is a modern spelling of clew, formerly meaning “a ball of thread.” The figurative sense arose from the idea of following a thread through a maze, especially the thread Ariadne gave Theseus to escape the Labyrinth, and came to mean anything that can be followed toward a solution.

Variant of clew (“a ball of thread or yarn”), from Middle English clew, clewe, clowe, clue, clwe, clyw, clywe, from Old English clēowen, clīewen, clīowen, clīwen, clȳwe, clȳwen (“ball, sphere; skein”), from Proto-West Germanic *kliuwīn (“ball, clump”), from Proto-Germanic *kliuwīną, *klewô (“bale, ball, clump, mass”), from Proto-Indo-European *glew- (“to ball up, clump together; lump, swelling”). Sense evolution with reference to the one which the mythical Theseus used to guide him out of the Minotaur's labyrinth. More at clew. Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian khnaul (“ball of yarn”), Dutch kluw…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary