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cleft

Pronunciation: /ˈklɛft/

The English word “cleft” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.
  2. A piece made by splitting.
  3. A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.

verb

  1. 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."

adjective

  1. split, divided, or partially divided into two.

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.

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