A Clash Can Be a Fight, a Sound or Two Patterns
A clash is a violent confrontation. The word stretches from street fighting to fixture lists to colours that do not match.
A clash is a violent confrontation, a loud collision of metal, or an incompatibility. One word covers a startling spread: armies clash, cymbals clash, two meetings clash in a diary, and a red shirt clashes with orange trousers. The thread is that two things meet and cannot both occupy the space. In British football, a *kit clash* forces the away team into a change strip.
- A confrontation. *Clashes with police.*
- A loud collision. *The clash of cymbals.*
- A scheduling conflict. *The dates clash.*
- A colour mismatch. *Those colours clash.*
- Kit clash — matching team colours. *A kit clash.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | clash | A brief clash. |
| Plural | clashes | Repeated clashes. |
| Verb | clash | They clashed. |
| Past | clashed | It clashed. |
| Adjective | clashing | Clashing colours. |
- Protesters clashed with police.Confrontation.
- The two meetings clash.Diary.
- That tie clashes with your shirt.Colour.
What clash means where
- News — violent confrontation between groups
- Music — cymbals struck together
- Diary — two commitments at the same time
- Fashion — colours or patterns that jar
- Sport — a match, or a kit conflict needing a change strip
Recorded from the 1500s, probably imitative, on the pattern of *clap* and *crash*. The figurative senses developed later.
Can dates clash?
Yes. In British usage, two events at the same time clash. American English more often says conflict.
What is a kit clash?
In football, when two teams' colours are too similar to tell apart, so the away side wears a change strip.