Clinton (or Ka-dah-wis-dag, "white field" in Seneca language) is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,942 at the 2010 census, declining to 1,683 in the 2020 census, 13% decline). It was named for George Clinton, the first Governor of New York.

The village of Clinton is within the town of Kirkland. Clinton was known as the "village of schools" due to the large number of private schools operating in the village during the 19th century.^{[citation needed]} Hamilton College is in proximity to the village.

In describing the attractions of Hamilton College in 1833, it was stated to be "situated in one of the most healthful, delightful, and fertile parts of our country; surrounded by a numerous, increasing, virtuous, and enterprising population." In 1903, another school catalogue, besides "the unrivalled beauty of the surrounding scenery" and "the remarkable healthfulness of the vicinity," commented on "the high moral fiber of the community and its superior educational advantages", all of which made Clinton "a most highly favored place for mental and moral culture."

Part of Coxe's Patent, 6th division, Clinton began in March 1787 when Revolutionary War veterans from Plymouth, Connecticut, settled in Clinton. Pioneer [Moses Foote] brought seven other families with him to the area. The new inhabitants found good soil, plentiful forests, and friendly in southern Kirkland along with Oneida people, who passed through on trail [sic]. Named after New York's first governor, George Clinton, fourth Vice President of the United States and an uncle of Erie Canal builder and New York governor DeWitt Clinton, the village had a gristmill on the Oriskany Creek on College Street the first year and slowly developed as a farming and mercantile center.

In 1793, Presbyterian minister Rev. Samuel Kirkland founded Hamilton-Oneida Academy as a seminary to serve as part of his missionary work with the Oneida tribe. The seminary admitted both white and Oneida boys, although no Oneida boys lasted more than one year. Kirkland named it in honor of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. The Academy became Hamilton College in 1812, making it the third oldest college in New York, after Columbia and Union, after it expanded to a four-year college curriculum.

Originally in the Town of Whitestown and then the Town of Paris, Clinton became part of the newly formed Town of Kirkland in 1827, and became an incorporated village in April 1843 with its own board of trustees, officials, employees, and status as a taxing jurisdiction.

According to Gordon's 1836 Gazetteer, Clinton had 50 dwellings, six stores, four taverns, two clothing works, a worsted factory, a grist mill, three churches (Universalist, Baptist, and Congregational), two academies, and two seminaries.

Elihu Root, Secretary of State under President McKinley and Secretary of War under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, was born in a building on the Hamilton College campus, and is probably Clinton's most famous son.