The presence of fluoride in water has become a matter of great concern around the world due to its chronic human carcinogenic behavior. Developing easily accessible and environmentally sustainable removal strategies is therefore a challenge for the scientists. Among the different treatment technologies, adsorption process for fluoride removal is considered cost-effective, flexible, and easy to design and operate. This review discusses the recent trends in scientific research and development on the exploitation of clay and clay minerals for fluoride removal from water, focusing on the effect of various factors on the adsorption, mechanism, isotherms and kinetics of the adsorption process. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.