cleft (root: cleave)

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• COUNT in NET: 1 in 1 verses (in OT : 1 in 1 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

cleft, imp. & p. p. 

 imp. & p. p. from Cleave.  [1913 Webster]

cleft, a. 

•  Divided; split; partly divided or split.  [1913 Webster]
•  Incised nearly to the midrib; as, a cleft leaf.  [1913 Webster]

cleft, n. [OE. clift; cf. Sw. klyft cave, den, Icel. kluft cleft, Dan. klöft, G. kluft. See Cleave to split and cf. 2d Clift, 1st Clough.].

•  A space or opening made by splitting; a crack; a crevice; as, the cleft of a rock.  Is. ii. 21.  [1913 Webster]
•  A piece made by splitting; as, a cleft of wood.  [1913 Webster]
•  A disease in horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.  [1913 Webster]

Branchial clefts. See under Branchial.

Syn. -- Crack; crevice; fissure; chink; cranny.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cleft, adj. split, partly divided.

Idiom

cleft palate a congenital split in the roof of the mouth. in a cleft stick in a difficult position, esp. one allowing neither retreat nor advance.

cleft, n. a split or fissure; a space or division made by cleaving.

Etymology

OE (rel. to CLEAVE(1)): assim. to CLEFT(1)

THESAURUS

cleft

abysm, abyss, alienation, aperture, arroyo, bifurcated, bisected, blaze, box canyon, branched, branching, breach, breach of friendship, break, breakage, broaching, burst, canyon, cavity, chap, chasm, check, chimney, chink, chinky, chip, clearing, cleavage, cleuch, clough, clove, cloven, col, coulee, couloir, crack, cracked, cranny, crena, crevasse, crevice, cut, cwm, defile, dehiscent, dell, depression, dichotomous, dike, dimidiate, disaffection, disclosure, disfavor, disruption, disunion, disunity, ditch, divergence, divided, dividedness, division, donga, draw, estrangement, excavation, falling-out, fault, fenestra, fissure, fissured, fissury, fistula, flaw, flume, fontanel, foramen, forked, forking, fracture, furrow, gap, gape, gaping, gappy, gash, gat, gorge, groove, gulch, gulf, gully, hack, halved, hiatus, hole, hollow, in pieces, in shreds, incision, indentation, inlet, interval, jag, jog, joggle, joint, kerf, kloof, lacerate, lacerated, lacuna, laying open, leak, mangled, moat, mutilated, nick, nock, notch, nullah, open rupture, opening, opening up, orifice, outlet, pass, passage, passageway, pore, quartered, ragged, ramified, ravine, recall of ambassadors, rent, rift, rime, rimose, rimulose, rip, riven, rupture, scale, schism, scissure, score, scotch, seam, separation, severed, shredded, slash, slice, slit, slot, space, splinter, splintered, split, stoma, tattered, tear, throwing open, torn, trench, uncorking, unstopping, valley, void, wadi, yawn

ROGET THESAURUS

cleft

bisection

N bisection, bipartition, dichotomy, subdichotomy, halving, dimidiation, bifurcation, forking, branching, ramification, divarication, fork, prong, fold, half, moiety, bisected, cloven, cleft, bipartite, biconjugate, bicuspid, bifid, bifurcous, bifurcate, bifurcated, distichous, dichotomous, furcular, semi-, demi-, hemi.

Interval

N interval, interspace, separation, break, gap, opening, hole, chasm, hiatus, caesura, interruption, interregnum, interstice, lacuna, cleft, mesh, crevice, chink, rime, creek, cranny, crack, chap, slit, fissure, scissure, rift, flaw, breach, rent, gash, cut, leak, dike, ha-ha, gorge, defile, ravine, canon, crevasse, abyss, abysm, gulf, inlet, frith, strait, gully, pass, furrow, abra, barranca, barranco, clove, gulch, notch, yawning gulf, hiatus maxime, hiatus valde deflendus, parenthesis, void, incompleteness, period, interim (time), with an interval, far between, breachy, rimose, rimulose, at intervals, longo intervallo.