cleft
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English clift, from Old English ġeclyft, from Proto-West Germanic *klufti, from Proto-Germanic *kluftiz, equivalent to .

Noun

cleft (plural clefts)

  1. An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.
    • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXVI:
      Then came some palsied oak, a cleft in him / Like a distorted mouth that splits its rim / Gaping at death, and dies while it recoils.
  2. A piece made by splitting.
    a cleft of wood
  3. A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.
Translations Verb

cleft (clefts, present participle clefting; simple past and past participle clefted)

  1. (linguistics) To syntactically separate a prominent constituent from the rest of the clause that concerns it, such as threat in "The threat which I saw but which he didn't see, was his downfall."
Related terms Verb
  1. Simple past tense and past participle of cleave
Adjective

cleft (not comparable)

  1. split, divided, or partially divided into two.
    Synonyms: cloven



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