I would think it would be someone that wants to be with a person 24/7. Never wanting to do things on her own, only with that other person. Calling all the time whenever they are apart. Things like that. Why do you ask? Did someone call you that?

When one's happines is based on another person.

I think people are clingy when they look for someone else to make them feel good and who dont have a good sense of self worth so they try to get as close as possible to someone they supposedly "love" because they love the feeling it causes. When people want to experience a "symbiosis" with their partner and dont want to realise that no matter how much love and how close you will always be 2 people with 2 different experiences...

I think making sure you learn to be happy with yourself and love yourself will avoid you being to clingy and dependent on someone else. Its only when you love yourself someone else can truly love you. Everything else is just a selfish attempt to find someone else who can make you feel ok....thats understandable but its not love.

"Clingy" is using the presence of another person to fill a personal void.Being happy with oneself removes the feeling that we are not "whole" unless we have someone in our lives. Clingy is ugly. Clingy is needy. Clingy is not healthy.

Hi, Neomi! You got some good answers,already...
"clingy" can also be a label given by someone who is afraid of intimacy, who remains aloof to avoid the pain that will want to free itself when love arises (just another perspective)
Dependency versus independence, that's a very ancient struggle: none of these attitudes breed healthy relationship.

From experience, I would say: don't try not to be clingy (if you recognize that you are), that won't help at all! Rather, it will turn into another manipulation to please the other, not to lose him or her.
I have suffered from aloofness and from "clinginess" both. Ultimately, they are both immature: we need two wings to fly, two legs to walk...
The way out of this gooey, dichotomous way to relate is not through repression. First, one needs to see oneself just the way one is (not how we would like or think we should be or not be). That requires ruthless compassion towards oneself, to be honest.
Actually, the way out is through the agony of neediness (which has nothing to do with anybody else) and own the responsibility for it. Aloofness is further away from the exit!
If you don't try to avoid the pain (hurts more!), you will see that it just wants to be released and leave you, forever!

and yes, it is absolutely true that clinging is a way to avoid our own emptiness; by avoiding it, we miss the peace, the silence and contentment of aloneness: whenever you are truly alone (not lonely!), your relating will be enriching, a true sharing;
welcome and "welgone"!
But first thing first: where are you now?

I wish you the best of luck on this journey, the most arduous one, I believe, except raising children! (although the same laws apply: most of us have children to avoid ...the void!)

With love

Shambhu

To "cling" is to hang on, to overindulge in another's self-interest. Usually the clinger forgoes his or her own destiny, all the while supplying love and fascination with the primary. Women are usually the ones doing the clinging, and usually the reason is very, very familiar...low self esteem. When you don't have a life of your own, when you agree to set aside your aspirations and desires to the whims of another, you are a prime candidate for the adjective...clingy.