A piece cut or trimmed from something, especially a newspaper article. Also refers to the process of cutting or trimming, or in audio, distortion from excessive signal levels.
From Middle English 'clippen' meaning 'to cut with shears', related to Old Norse 'klippa'. The meaning evolved from physical cutting to include metaphorical cutting of content or signal processing.
Before the internet, clipping services were how businesses monitored their reputation - armies of people with scissors scanning newspapers for mentions. The word beautifully bridges the physical act of cutting paper and the digital world of truncated audio signals.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.