cleft
noun/kleft/
/kleft/
- a natural opening or line, for example in the ground or in rock, or in a person’s chin (= part of the face below the mouth)
- a cleft in the rocks
- They walked up a cleft in the hills.
- the cleft in his chin
Word Originnoun Middle English clift: of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kluft and German Kluft, also to cleave ‘to split something in two’. The form of the word was altered in the 16th cent. by association with cleft, the past participle of ‘cleave’.Definitions on the go
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cleft