Cleft

Quick meaning: Cleft is a noun meaning An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.

Meaning

An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.

More Meanings

1. A piece made by splitting.
2. A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.
3. simple past and past participle of cleave
4. split, divided, or partially divided into two.
5. (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."

Example Sentences

a cleft of wood

The river flows through a cleft in the mountains.

The strategy the language employs is to cleft the clause containing the wh-phrase, as exemplified in (3) […]

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.

Word Forms

• clefts
• clefting
• clefted

Synonyms for cleft

Depending on context, synonyms include cloven, crack, fissure, crevice, compound, divided.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include scissure, fissure, crack, crevice, divided, bisulcate.

Related Dictionary Tools