Clojure uses a high-level data-structure for list like data. Lisp usually uses a very primitive data-structure (two-slot linked list cells). The main point is

Clojure uses a high-level data-structure for list like data. Lisp usually uses a very primitive data-structure (two-slot linked list cells). The main point is that Lisp actually has decades old established set of data structures, their operators and programming concepts. For example when I would have read a Lisp book, I would find explanations of these core datastructures and operators. In a Clojure book many things work sufficiently differently and also are named differently. In Lisp for example "atom" is a central concept. It's anything which is not a linked list element. In Clojure this word is used to name a completely different concept: a data structure to manage state. Clojure is more like Lisp, Java, SML put into a blender. The result may have a similar color, some traces of flavor, but other then that it is a new language.