Tony Hillerman
Did you know?
What's the difference between a crevice and a crevasse?
Crevice and crevasse are very similar words: both come from Old French crever "to break or burst" and both refer to an opening of some kind. In fact, you can say that the only notable distinction between the two is the size of the openings they denote—and that one of them—crevice—is far more common than the other.
A crevice is a narrow opening resulting from a split or crack. In nature, crevices exist mostly in rocks and cliffs, but writers sometimes use the word for similar openings found in other materials, as in "crumbs in the crevices of the cushion." The word also is used metaphorically, as in "the cracks and crevices of memory."
Crevasse refers to a deep hole or fissure in a glacier or in the earth. In most instances, the word appears with enough context that the depth of the opening is easy enough to figure out, as in "a climber who fell 30 feet into a crevasse."
You'll sometimes find crevice used where crevasse is expected—probably because it's the word people are more familiar with. One way to remember the distinction between crevice and crevasse is that the i in crevice, the smaller hole, is a thinner letter than a in crevasse, the larger hole. Or, should you step into a crevasse, perhaps you'll have time for a lot of "Ahhhs"?
Examples of crevice in a Sentence
Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 29 Oct. 2025
No trail, just rock after rock, a phantom rattlesnake curled in every crevice.
—Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Most vacuums are fit for the job with an attachment suited for getting into small crevices.
—Krystal Nurse, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
Fascistic creep bubbles like lava through the crevices of America’s political and cultural substrata.
—Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for crevice
Cite this Entry
“Crevice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crevice. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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crevice
noun
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