clowder

C3L1O1W4D2E1R1
US/ˈklaʊ̯dɚ/UK/ˈklaʊ̯də/

noun

A group of cats or other small felines.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

nounclowder (plural clowders)

plural clowders

  1. collectiveA group of cats or other small felines.

    2011, M.D. Pueppke, Fuzzy the Cat, The One and Only, “Getting on terms with the terms” How ‛bout organizing a party of clowder chowder. You know, big servings of chowder for the cat clowder.

    3 more examples

    A Brooklyn friend who persists in feeding the host of creatures - including me - who appear at her door will be delighted to know that the most nonchalant recipients of her largesse may be referred to as a clowder of cats.

    1984 15 April, Nelson Bryant, “Bevies of Terms Befuddle Prides”, in The New York Times

    Real cat fights are rare in established clowders. So instead of risking serious injury, cats resort to menace and threats.

    2007, Kathryn Soper, Cat Wrangling Made Easy

    2010, The Big Bang Theory, episode “The Zazzy Substitution” Leonard: You’re clearly upset about Amy being gone, and you’re trying to replace her with a bunch of cats. Sheldon: Clowder. Leonard: What? Sheldon: A group of cats is a clowder. Or a glaring. It’s the kind of thing you ought to know now that we have one.

    Synonyms: clutter, glaring

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA group of cats or other small felines.

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*klūtaz
  2. Old Englishclott“round mass, lump”
  3. Englishclowder

A variation, recorded since 1801, of clutter, itself from clot, from Old English clott (“round mass, lump”), from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (hence cognate with Dutch kloot (“ball, testicle”), Danish klods (“a block, lump”) and German Klotz (“lump, block”)).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Esperanto kataro
  • katarogroup of cats

Rhymes & wordplay

Sounds the same

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

clowder. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowder

MLA

“clowder.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowder. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “clowder,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowder.

Source: clowder on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.