noun · verb · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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Received-Pronunciation:/kləʊv/
General-American:/kloʊv/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -əʊv
CMU ARPABET:K L OW1 V
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A very pungent aromatic spice, the unexpanded flower bud of the clove tree.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A clove tree, of the species Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Caryophyllus aromaticus), native to the Moluccas (Indonesian islands), which produces the spice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
An old English measure of weight, containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), i.e. half a stone.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
One of the small bulbs formed in the axils of the scales of a large bulb.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
aromatic flower bud of a clove tree; yields a spice
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: flower bud
History
Etymology
From Middle English clove, an alteration of earlier clowe, borrowed from the first component of Old French clou (de girofle) (modern French clou de girofle), from Latin clāvus (“nail”) for its shape. Also see clāva (“knotty branch, club”). Doublet of clou and clavus.
From Middle English clove, from Old English clufu, from Proto-West Germanic *klubu, from Proto-Germanic *klubō, related to clēofan (“to cleave, split”), hence with the verbal etymology hereafter.
Borrowed from Dutch klove (now kloof). Doublet of kloof.
Across languages
Translations
192 source translations are retained for this English entry.