Webster's English Dictionary

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clause

clause \'klo.z\ n [ME, fr. OF, clause, fr. ML clausa close of a rhetorical 
   period, fr. L fe]m. of clausus, pp. of claudere to close 1: a separate 
   section of a discourse or writing; specif : a distinc t article in a formal 
   document 2: a group of words containing a subject and predicate and 
   functioning as a  member of a complex or compound sentence