Other forms: clefts
A cleft is a split or a deep narrow opening. A cleft in the rock, a cleft chin, cleft palate.
In landscape it is a narrow fissure. A cleft chin is a dimpled one, caused by the two halves of the jaw not fully fusing. Cleft lip and cleft palate are congenital conditions where a gap remains, and they are among the most commonly repaired. Note cleave, from which it comes; and cleft stick, meaning a position with no good option.
1nouncleftA split or a deep narrow opening.
“A small bird had built its nest in a cleft in the rock face.”
2adjectivechinSplit, of a chin or a palate.
“The actor was famous for his square jaw and cleft chin.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
cleft is a split.
Old English geclyft comes from cleofan, to split. Cleave, cleaver and the German Kluft come from the same splitting.
Proto-Indo-European
*glewbʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*kluftiz
Proto-West Germanic
*klufti
Old English
ġeclyft
Middle English
clift
English, today
cleft
From Middle English clift, from Old English ġeclyft, from Proto-West Germanic klufti, from Proto-Germanic kluftiz, equivalent to cleave + -t. Compare Dutch klucht (“coarse comedy”), Swedish klyft (“cave, den”), German Kluft. See cleave.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA