How do I clear the screen in Terminal (no CLS)

I'm just beginning, and I want to learn how to clear the terminal window screen. I thought the command was CLS, but this isn't a known command, so the result is
zsh: command not found: cls

Also, it's not mentioned in the Command Line Primer

Surely it's possible to access this, but how?
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jerelo
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  • in my mac terminal i can't clear the screen with command clear. any suggestions would be utterly welcomed.

    —
    harshhes
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cls is for Windows Command Prompt. For *nix-based systems like macOS, use the command clear.

If you're using the built-in Terminal app:

  • Edit > Clear Scrollback ⌥⌘K (Alt+Cmd+K)

  • Edit > Clear Screen ⌃⌘L (Ctrl+Cmd+L)

If you're using iTerm:

  • Edit > Clear Buffer ⌘K (Cmd+K)

  • Edit > Clear Scrollback Buffer ⇧⌘K (Shift+Cmd+K)

Personally, I prefer the menu options over the clear command because the command doesn't clear the scrollback buffer (since it has no knowledge of the scrollback buffer).
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jpickwell-work
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Thanks jpickwell, I appreciate you taking the time to help, and your answer is clear and informative.
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jerelo
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