Meanings
- slanglifestyleThe ship of characters Clark Kent and Lex Luthor from the television series Smallville.
Thus Smallville fans use the Clex pairing in fanfiction to explore, therefore, not just what it means to become “queer” in the sense of lived sexual orientation, but also what it means to become a fan.
2005, Brigid Kelly, "The Transformative Power Of 'Hot Gay Sex': Queering Superman, Queering The Fan On The TelevisionWithoutPity 'Smallville' Boards", Spectator, Volume 25, Issue 1, Spring 2005, page 752 more examples
Considering how often Smallville has already diverged from Superman canon in the course of the past five seasons, including the transformation of Clark and Lex from instant enemies to friends, this line of reasoning points to an attitude of wanting to defend and reaffirm the validity of "Clex."
2008, Melanie E. S. Kohnen, “The Adventures of a Repressed Farm Boy and the Billionaire Who Loves Him: Queer Spectatorship in Smallville Fandom”, in Sharon Marie Ross, Louisa Ellen Stein, editors, Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 216The same thing occurred among Smallville’s shippers who were divided among supporting Clana (Clark/Lana), Clois (Clark/Lois), Chlark (Chloe/Clark), with some slash fans rooting for the same sex pairing Clex (Clark/Lex).
2008, Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, Routledge, published 2011, →ISBN, page 46
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Clex
Cite this entry
Clex. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Clex
“Clex.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Clex. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Clex,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Clex.
Source: Clex on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.