Resembling or having the characteristics of a clump; grouped together in thick, irregular masses.
From clump (a grouping of thick, heavy material) plus -like (resembling or similar to). The construction follows a common English pattern of adding -like to nouns to create descriptive adjectives. The meaning remained consistent from Middle Low German 'klumpe' through its evolution in English.
The '-like' suffix is incredibly productive in English, letting speakers create new adjectives on the fly—you could say something is 'clumplike,' 'treaclelike,' or 'dragonlike' and people instantly understand you, even if the exact word isn't in the dictionary. It's one of the reasons English can describe almost anything without waiting for a new official word.
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