# clearance
## English
### Etymology

From clear +‎ -ance.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈklɪəɹən(t)s/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈklɪɹən(t)s/
* Hyphenation: clear‧ance

### Noun

clearance (countable and uncountable, plural clearances)
* The act of clearing or something (such as a space) cleared.
* The distance between two moving objects, especially between parts of a machine
* The height or width of a tunnel, bridge or other passage, or the distance between a vehicle and the walls or roof of such passage; a gap, headroom.
** 1954 February, “Notes and News: Deviation at Bramwith”, in Railway Magazine, page 137:When the scheme is completed, the 99-year-old swing bridge over the canal will be dispensed with as the new bridge will have sufficient height to allow clearance for the passage of canal traffic.
** 1960 November, David Morgan, “""Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 684:Piggybacking introduced severe clearance problems for many railroads.
* A permission for a vehicle to proceed, or for a person to travel.
    The plane got clearance from air traffic control, and we were off.
    He got clearance to travel to America, even though he had previous links to terrorists.
* A permission to have access to sensitive or secret documents or other information.
** 2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian‎:In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.
* A permission to use something, usually intellectual property, that is legally, but not otherwise, protected.
* (retail) A sale of merchandise, especially at significantly reduced prices, usually in order to make room for new merchandise or updated versions of the same merchandise; sometimes as a closeout.
* (banking, finance) The settlement of transactions involving securities or means of payment such as checks by means of a clearing house.
* (medicine) The removal of harmful substances from the blood; renal clearance.
* (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The act of potting all the remaining balls on a table at one visit.
* (soccer) The act of kicking a ball away from the goal one is defending.
    Synonym: clearing
** 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎:Bolton were then just inches from taking the lead, but the dangerous-looking Taylor drilled just wide after picking up a loose ball following Jose Bosingwa's poor attempted clearance.
* (chess) Removal of pieces from a rank, file or diagonal so that a bishop, rook or queen is free to move along it.
* Clear or net profit.
** 1859, Anthony Trollope, The West Indies and the Spanish Main:There can, I believe, be no doubt of this, that sugar can be made better and cheaper in large quantities than in small. But the clearance, sir; that is the question. How would this affect the clearance? The sugar manufacturer would want his profit.
* (Australian rules football) The first disposal in a chain that leaves the area of a stoppage, or a disposal that leaves the area of a stoppage itself.
* (Australian rules football) The act of leaving the area of a stoppage.

#### Derived terms

* clearance hole
* clearance rate
* clearance space
* clearance time
* customs clearance
* ground clearance
* immunoclearance
* L clearance
* nonclearance
* police clearance certificate
* preclearance
* Q clearance
* renal clearance
* security clearance
* seroclearance
* total clearance

#### Translations
## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English clearance.

### Noun

clearance f (invariable)
* (medicine) clearance

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English clearance.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /kle.aˈɾɐ̃.si/
* (Brazil) IPA: /kle.aˈɾɐ̃.si/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /kle.aˈɾɐ̃.se/
* (Portugal) IPA: /kli.ɐˈɾɐ̃.sɨ/, (faster pronunciation) /kljɐˈɾɐ̃.sɨ/
* Hyphenation: clea‧ran‧ce

### Noun

clearance m (plural clearances)
* (medicine) clearance (removal of harmful substances from the blood)