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# clam

«clam» in Mova's school dictionary: **a sea or river animal with a soft body inside two hard…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a clam, clams); verb (clam up, clams up, clammed up, clamming up)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A clam is a sea or river animal with a soft body inside two hard shells joined by a hinge; it lives buried in sand or mud. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#m1)

2) Clams are also eaten as seafood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#m2)

3) To clam up means to suddenly stop talking, often because you are nervous or do not want to tell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, clams are molluscs, like snails and mussels; they filter tiny food from water; the giant clam on coral reefs can be bigger than a child. In stories and everyday life, someone who «clams up» goes quiet when asked questions. «Happy as a clam» (US) means very happy. Phrases: «clam chowder», «giant clam», «clam up», «shut like a clam».

### examples

- We found an empty clam shell on the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x1)
- Clams dig into the sand when the tide goes out. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x2)
- The giant clam lives on coral reefs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x3)
- Dad ordered clam chowder at the restaurant. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x4)
- When the teacher asked who broke it, Sam clammed up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x5)
- She shut her mouth like a clam and said nothing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/#x6)

### note

Verb forms double the m: «clammed», «clamming». Do not confuse with «clammy» (cold and slightly wet: clammy hands). A clam is a mollusc, not a fish.

### In the corpora

- [Walruses find clams on the dark seabed with hundreds of sensitive whiskers and suck them out of their shells.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/169-the-arctic-ocean-walruses-bowheads-the-400-year-shark-and-the-unicorns-tooth/5/)
- [A clam from Iceland named Ming lived about five hundred and seven years, worked out by counting the growth rings on its shell.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived/7/)
- [An octopus is a soft relative of snails and clams, yet it is one of the cleverest animals in the sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/0/)
- [The tuskfish carries a clam in its mouth and smashes it on a rock, using the rock as an anvil.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/388-surprising-brains-tool-using-fish-counting-bees-laughing-rats-and-clever-pigs/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «clam» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/clam/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.