clown

• clowne, cloyne (obsolete)

From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“lump, bundle”), etc.^[1]

Alternatively, directly from Low German (compare North Frisian klönne (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kluns (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Dutch kloen (“uncouth person, lout”)), themselves from the same ultimate source as above.

Unlikely from Latin colōnus (“colonist, farmer”), although learned awareness of this term may have influenced semantic development.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: kloun, IPA^(key): /klaʊn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

clown (plural clowns)

1. A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
   • 2008, Lich King, “Black Metal Sucks”, in Toxic Zombie Onslaught:

     Over there in Norway, the churches all burn down / Let's go dress in goth clothes and get painted like a clown

2. A person who acts in a silly fashion.

   He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.

3. A stupid person.
   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 81:

     "The dealers snatched at the state of intellectual exhaustion and scepticism of all values that followed the first world war to abolish values and substitute for them an arbitrary mumbo-jumbo of occultism and pseudo-Freudianism, which they tagged on to the works of studio clowns like Picasso and Modigliani and the like."

   • 1966, “The Incredible Hulk (theme song)”, Jacques Urbont (lyrics) (The Marvel Super Heroes (television series)):

     Doc Bruce Banner, belted by gamma rays,
     Turns into the Hulk – Ain’t he unglamour-rays! [unglamorous]
     Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull,
     Ain’t no monster, clown. Who is as lovable
     As ever-lovin’ Hulk? - Hulk! Hulk!

   • 2013, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Gold Coast: Three Californias (Wild Shore Triptych; 2)‎^[1], Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 122:

     Everything’s on the table, the specs are there in the RFP and can’t be changed by some clown in the Air Force who happens to come up with a new idea.

   • 2017, Arron Crascall, See Ya Later: The World According to Arron Crascall:

     'Breaking my sister's heart then getting pissed with his mates in the very next pub while she's sobbing alone?' I dragged this clown away from the fruitie and back to Amy next door, running my mouth off at him as we went.

4. (obsolete) A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

     This loutish clown is such that you never saw so ill - favoured a vizar

   • 1700, Timothy Nourse, Campania Foelix, pages 15–16:

     […] three things ought always to be kept under: a mastiff dog, a stone horse and a clown; and really I think a snarling, cross-grained clown to be the most unlucky beast of three.

5. (obsolete) One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
   • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC:

     The clown, the child of nature, without guile.

   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings. The clowns soon found that he did not know wheat from rye, and began to despise him; one of the boys, by pretending to show him a bird's nest, decoyed him into a ditch; […]

6. A clownfish.
   • 2006, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, volume 54, numbers 5-8, page 32:

     While the tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus has been spawned in captivity, wild-caught tomato clowns are more often seen for sale.

• (person who acts in a silly fashion): See Thesaurus:fool, jester, and laughingstock

clown (third-person singular simple present clowns, present participle clowning, simple past and past participle clowned)

1. (intransitive) To act in a silly or playful fashion.
   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 128:

     Except for Rasheena, the rest of the baby mamas was at least struggling to live halfway right. They used to clown and act shitty whenever they came by Noojie's and saw Carmiesha there. But every last one of them ended up being grateful to her for the things she did for their kids.

2. (transitive, African-American Vernacular) To ridicule, make fun of.

   Synonym: clown on

   • 2002, Vibe, volume 10, number 11, page 62:

     The show Dismissed was one of my favorites, because I like to see people get clowned.

   • 2017, Darrell Smith, Miracle Baby:

     All my comrades were laughing and clowning me, but shit, that didn't stop me from talking more shit.

• coulrophobia
• jester
• jackpudding

From English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klau̯n/ [klãũ̯n]
• Rhymes: -au̯n
• Hyphenation: clown

clown anim

1. clown (entertainer)

   Synonym: pailazo

• “clown”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

Borrowed from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klɑu̯n/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: clown
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯n

clown m (plural clowns, diminutive clowntje n)

1. clown (entertainer)

• circusclown
• clownsneus
• clownvis

• august
• harlekijn
• paljas
• pierrot
• nar
• witte clown
• zot

Borrowed from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /klun/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Homophone: clowns

clown m or f (plural clowns, feminine clownesse)

1. clown (performer)

   Synonym: (Louisiana) macaque

2. clown (person who acts in a comic way)

• pantalon clown /pantalon de clown

• “clown”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• clauno

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkla.un/^[1]
• Rhymes: -aun

• Audio:

  (file)

clown m (invariable)

1. clown (artist)

   Synonym: pagliaccio

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklawn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -awn
• Syllabification: clown

clown m pers

1. (comedy) alternative spelling of klaun

• clown in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• clown in Polish dictionaries at PWN

clown m (plural clowni)

1. alternative form of clovn

• clown in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

• clon

Unadapted borrowing from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklaun/ [ˈklãũn], /ˈklon/ [ˈklõn], /ˈkloun/ [ˈklõũn]
• Rhymes: -aun, -on, -oun

clown m (plural clowns or clownes)

1. clown (circus performance artist)

   Synonym: payaso

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “clown”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Manuel Seco; Olimpia Andrés; Gabino Ramos (3 August 2023), “clown”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]

Borrowed from English clown.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklaʊn/

clown c

1. clown

   När vi slutade grundskolan fick jag titeln som klassens clown.

   When we graduated from primary school, I got the title of class clown.

• pajas

• clown in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• IPA^(key): /klou̯n/
• IPA^(key): /klɔu̯n/
• Rhymes: -ou̯n

Borrowed from English clown.

clown m (plural clowniaid)

1. clown

• closwn (colloquial, first-person singular conditional)

clown

1. inflection of cloi:
   1. first-person plural present/future
   2. first-person singular imperfect/conditional
   3. (literary) first-person plural imperative