British
: a conspicuous blunder
—often used in the phrase drop a clanger
Examples of clanger in a Sentence
They lost the game after a defensive clanger.
a newsreader who memorably dropped a clanger when she referred to Robert Burns as an English poet
Recent Examples on the Web
In its two most recent games, its goalkeeper, André Onana, has made calamitous clangers, leading to easy goals for the opposition.
—
Alex Tabet, NBC News, 15 Dec. 2024
Another game against Chelsea and another clanger for Lloris - this time during the Lilywhites tenure at Wembley.
—SI.com, 30 Sep. 2019
For years the clanger has dangled in the middle, banging against the bell’s iron walls for two states to hear, back and forth from Indiana to Ohio to Indiana to Ohio …
WHERE’S GREGG?
—Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star, 3 July 2019
The veined wing of the clanger cicada kills bacteria solely through its physical structure — one of the first natural surfaces found to do so.
—Trevor Quirk, Scientific American, 5 Mar. 2013
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Alex Tabet, NBC News, 15 Dec. 2024
Another game against Chelsea and another clanger for Lloris - this time during the Lilywhites tenure at Wembley.
—SI.com, 30 Sep. 2019
For years the clanger has dangled in the middle, banging against the bell’s iron walls for two states to hear, back and forth from Indiana to Ohio to Indiana to Ohio …
WHERE’S GREGG?
—Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star, 3 July 2019
The veined wing of the clanger cicada kills bacteria solely through its physical structure — one of the first natural surfaces found to do so.
—Trevor Quirk, Scientific American, 5 Mar. 2013
Cite this Entry
“Clanger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clanger. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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