clause

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

clause, n. [F. clause, LL. clausa, equiv. to L. clausula clause, prop., close of rhetorical period, close, fr. claudere to shut, to end. See Close.].

•  A separate portion of a written paper, paragraph, or sentence; an article, stipulation, or proviso, in a legal document.  [1913 Webster]

  "The usual attestation clause to a will."  [1913 Webster]
•  A subordinate portion or a subdivision of a sentence containing a subject and its predicate.  [1913 Webster]

clause, n. 

 See Letters clause or Letters close, under Letter.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

clause, n.
1 Gram. a distinct part of a sentence, including a subject and predicate.
2 a single statement in a treaty, law, bill, or contract.

Derivative

clausal adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L clausula conclusion f. claudere claus- shut

THESAURUS

clause

adjectival phrase, article, back matter, bill, book, boundary condition, calendar, catch, chapter, column, companion bills amendment, condition, construction, donnee, dragnet clause, enacting clause, escalator clause, escape clause, escape hatch, expression, fascicle, fine print, folio, front matter, gathering, given, grounds, headed group, hold-up bill, idiom, idiotism, installment, joker, kicker, limiting condition, livraison, locution, manner of speaking, motion, noun phrase, number, obligation, omnibus bill, page, paragraph, parameter, part, passage, peculiar expression, period, phrasal idiom, phrase, prerequisite, privileged question, provision, provisions, proviso, question, requisite, rider, saving clause, section, sentence, serial, set phrase, sheet, signature, sine qua non, small print, specification, standard phrase, stipulation, string, syntactic structure, term, terms, text, turn of expression, turn of phrase, ultimatum, usage, utterance, verb complex, verb phrase, verbalism, verse, volume, way of speaking, whereas, word-group

ROGET THESAURUS

clause

Book

N booklet, writing, work, volume, tome, opuscule, tract, tractate, livret, brochure, libretto, handbook, codex, manual, pamphlet, enchiridion, circular, publication, chap book, part, issue, number livraison, album, portfolio, periodical, serial, magazine, ephemeris, annual, journal, paper, bill, sheet, broadsheet, leaf, leaflet, fly leaf, page, quire, ream, chapter, section, head, article, paragraph, passage, clause, endpapers, frontispiece, cover, binding, folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, sextodecimo, octodecimo, encyclopedia, encompilation, library, bibliotheca, press, definitive work, treatise, comprehensive treatise (dissertation), writer, author, litterateur, essayist, journalism, pen, scribbler, the scribbling race, literary hack, Grub-street writer, writer for the press, gentleman of the press, representative of the press, adjective jerker, diaskeaust, ghost, hack writer, ink slinger, publicist, reporter, penny a liner, editor, subeditor, playwright, poet, bookseller, publisher, bibliopole, bibliopolist, librarian, bookstore, bookshop, bookseller's shop, knowledge of books, bibliography, book learning, among the giant fossils of my past, craignez tout d'un auteur en courroux, for authors nobler palms remain, I lived to write and wrote to live, look in thy heart and write, there is no Past so long as Books shall live, the public mind is the creation of the Master-Writ, volumes that I prize above my dukedom.

Part

N part, portion, dose, item, particular, aught, any, division, ward, subdivision, section, chapter, clause, count, paragraph, verse, article, passage, sector, segment, fraction, fragment, cantle, frustum, detachment, parcel, piece, lump, bit cut, cutting, chip, chunk, collop, slice, scale, lamina, small part, morsel, particle, installment, dividend, share, debris, odds and ends, oddments, detritus, excerpta, member, limb, lobe, lobule, arm, wing, scion, branch, bough, joint, link, offshoot, ramification, twig, bush, spray, sprig, runner, leaf, leaflet, stump, component part, sarmentum, compartment, department, county, fractional, fragmentary, sectional, aliquot, divided, in compartments, multifid, disconnected, partial, partly, in part, partially, piecemeal, part by part, by by installments, by snatches, by inches, by driblets, bit by bit, inch by inch, foot by foot, drop by drop, in detail, in lots.