clam

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun burrowing marine mollusk living on sand or mud; the shell closes with viselike firmness
  2. noun a piece of paper money worth one dollar
  3. noun flesh of either hard-shell or soft-shell clams

Etymology

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clam (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum. The sense "Scientologist" alludes to the Scientologist belief that human thetans (souls) previously inhabited clams.

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