What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Clutter vs Junk - What's the difference?

clutter | junk |

As nouns the difference between clutter and junk

is that clutter is a confused disordered jumble of things while junk is discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.

As verbs the difference between clutter and junk

is that clutter is to fill something with clutter while junk is to throw away.

clutter

English

Noun

(-)
  • A confused disordered jumble of things.
  • * L'Estrange
  • He saw what a clutter there was with huge, overgrown pots, pans, and spits.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner
  • , title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Nonetheless, some insect prey take advantage of clutter' by hiding in it. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the ' clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.}}
  • (obsolete) Clatter; confused noise.
  • (Jonathan Swift)
  • Background echos, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
  • (countable) A group of cats;
  • * 2008 , John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories , Introduction
  • Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

    Derived terms

    * surface clutter * volume clutter

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill something with .
  • *{{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.}}
  • (obsolete) To clot or coagulate, like blood.
  • (Holland)
  • To make a confused noise; to bustle.
  • * Tennyson
  • It [the goose] cluttered here, it chuckled there.
    (Webster 1913)

    junk

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (EtymOnLine).

    Noun

    (-)
  • Discarded or waste material; rubbish, trash.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.}}
  • A collection of miscellaneous items of little value.
  • (slang) Any narcotic drug, especially heroin.
  • * 1961 , William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine , page 7
  • Trace a line of goose pimples up the thin young arm. Slide the needle in and push the bulb watching the junk' hit him all over. Move right in with the shit and suck ' junk through all the hungry young cells.
  • (slang) Genitalia.
  • * 2009 , (Kesha), (Tik Tok)
  • I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
    Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk
    Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk
  • (nautical) Salt beef.
  • Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.
  • (dated) A fragment of any solid substance; a thick piece; a chunk.
  • (Lowell)
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * junk bond * junk bottle * junk DNA * junk drawer * junk food * junk hook * junkie * junk mail * junk ring * junkroom * junk science * junkshop * junk vat * junk wad * junkyard

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To throw away.
  • Synonyms
    * (throw away) bin, chuck, chuck away, chuck out, discard, dispose of, ditch, dump, scrap, throw away, throw out, toss, trash * See also

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) junco, from (etyl) djong (Malay (adjong)).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A Chinese sailing vessel.
  • References