What does "littleneck" mean?

A small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck.

What is a synonym for "littleneck"?

Common synonyms include: littleneck clam.

Pronounced //ˈlɪtəlˌnɛk//.

//ˈlɪtəlˌnɛk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A small hard clam, larger than a countneck but smaller than a topneck. US
"Put a few dozen washed littlenecks in a large, hot skillet with olive oil."
2
a young quahog wordnet
3
a quahog when young and small; usually eaten raw; an important food popular in New York wordnet

"Put a few dozen washed littlenecks in a large, hot skillet with olive oil."

Ellipsis of littleneck clam; from little + neck.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.