Other forms: clanging, clangs, clanged
To clang is to make a loud ringing metallic sound. The gate clanged, a clang of metal, clanging bells.
The sound is heavy, metallic and unmusical — a gate, a bell, a dropped pan. It is louder than a clink and duller than a ring. Note clanger, as in drop a clanger, meaning to make an embarrassing mistake in public, which is British and comes from the noise of the error landing. Note also that clang is imitative, like most of its family.
1verbclangTo make a loud ringing metallic sound.
“The heavy iron gate clanged shut behind them.”
2nounsoundSuch a sound.
“The pan hit the stone floor with a loud clang.”
clang is a metallic sound.
The word is imitative, recorded from 1570, probably influenced by Latin clangere, to resound. German Klang and Dutch klank are the same noise heard independently.
1570, of imitative of the sound origin. Compare also stq Kloang, West Frisian klank, Dutch klank, German Klang (from German klingen), Danish and Swedish klang, Latin clangere (“to resound”) (which probably influenced it).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA