A clunk is the dull hard sound of one heavy object knocking another. A loud clunk, the clunk of the door, hear a clunk.
It is imitative and specific: a clunk is heavy and dead, where a clang rings and a thud is soft. In a car, a clunk when turning is a symptom mechanics ask about by name, because it points to particular joints.
1nounclunkThe dull, hard sound of one heavy object knocking another.
“The heavy box fell off the shelf with a loud clunk.”
clunk is a sound.
Imitative of the sound, recorded from the nineteenth century.
imitative of the sound.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA