cleft

Definition

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

Etymology

From Middle English clift, from Old English ġeclyft, from Proto-West Germanic *klufti, from Proto-Germanic *kluftiz, equivalent to cleave + -t (“-th”). Compare Dutch klucht (“coarse comedy”), Swedish klyft (“cave, den”), German Kluft. See cleave.

Example Sentences

• "The river flows through a cleft in the mountains."
• "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."
• "a cleft of wood"

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