How to spell clue

hear itclue/klu/nounLong vowels

What it means: Evidence that helps to solve a problem.

In a sentence: The detective found a clue in the garden.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as cluee or clew.

Same family: clues, clueless, cluelessly, hint, indication. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Clue comes from an older spelling, “clew,” which meant a ball of thread. In ancient stories, a ball of thread was used to find the way out of a maze, so the word gradually came to mean something that helps you find an answer or solution.

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