Central places or organizations where information, goods, or financial transactions are collected, sorted, and distributed to where they're needed.
Compound of 'clearing' (a cleared space) plus 'house' (Old English hūs). Originally literal—buildings where transactions were cleared and settled. First used in banking in the 1800s.
The Federal Reserve's clearing house processes trillions of dollars daily, but the concept is ancient—temples in Egypt and Rome acted as clearinghouses for grain, settling debts between merchants long before modern banking.
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