1. A separate section of a legal document: "There was a clause in the will indicating a special provision for his children."
2. A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and forming part of a compound or complex sentence: "Clauses that express a complete thought are called independent because they can stand alone; while clauses that do not express a complete thought are called dependent because they cannot stand alone."
3. Etymology: from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa, "conclusion", from Latin clausula, "the end, a closing, a termination"; also "end of a sentence or a legal argument"; from clausus, claudere, "to close, to shut, to conclude".