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as in gap
an open space in a barrier (as a wall or hedge)
it was possible to peek through the rift in the fence and see the ball game
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in to rupture
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rift
Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 15 Sep. 2022
The police, unsurprisingly, started to fire tear gas canisters again, trying to rift and wedge the fleeing protesters.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 28 Dec. 2019
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA Today, 4 Oct. 2025
Advertisement While trying to bridge internal party rifts, Takaichi will need to build a majority coalition and convince voters that changing leaders really matters.
—Jeff Kingston, Time, 4 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rift
Noun
However, the supercontinent began to rift and splinter in the late Triassic about 230 million years ago.
—Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 15 Sep. 2022
The police, unsurprisingly, started to fire tear gas canisters again, trying to rift and wedge the fleeing protesters.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 28 Dec. 2019
Verb
Not just from the outside in but from our inside rifts.
—Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA Today, 4 Oct. 2025
Advertisement While trying to bridge internal party rifts, Takaichi will need to build a majority coalition and convince voters that changing leaders really matters.
—Jeff Kingston, Time, 4 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rift
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rift
Noun
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This invisible, climate-polluting gas can escape into the water through fissures in the sea floor, often revealing itself with a stream of bubbles weaving their way up to the ocean surface.—
Laura Paddison,
CNN Money,
10 Oct. 2025
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Johanon's remarks centered on the fissures in society.—
Detroit Free Press staff,
Freep.com,
8 Oct. 2025
Noun
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To bring it to the next level, his team aims to collaborate with clinical physicians, comparing the diagnosis outputs from machine-learning models and human doctors to identify the differences and performance gaps.—
Eve Lu,
Scientific American,
8 Oct. 2025
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Although research from the Pew Research Center finds that the gender pay gap has narrowed in the last decade, women still earn 85% of the wages men do.—
Helen Carefoot,
Flow Space,
8 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The fatty plaques that develop may then rupture or break within the arteries, which leads to a wound healing response by the body that drives clot formation to repair the area and prevent bleeding.—
Angelica Bottaro,
Verywell Health,
6 Oct. 2025
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The 29-year-old ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and tore his meniscus last September but suffered a setback in his recovery this summer after featuring in all four of Manchester City’s Club World Cup matches.—
Jordan Campbell,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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To avoid the penalty and still take advantage, teams are piling their biggest and most powerful defenders around the edges of the long snapper and using the crevices around a mostly stationary player to get into position for the block.—
Nate Atkins,
New York Times,
10 Oct. 2025
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Lastly, swap in the crevice tool for corners and other hard-to-reach areas, especially spots under furniture, that usually require bending over or getting down on your hands and knees.—
Stephanie Osmanski,
Better Homes & Gardens,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
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An enormous hole opens up in the ceiling of Linda’s apartment, flooding the place and forcing her and her daughter to relocate to a motel.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
9 Oct. 2025
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In August, Kravitz told Meyers that her mom's pet snake, Orpheus, had gotten loose and slithered into a small hole in the corner of the bathroom.—
Bryan West,
USA Today,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Swift may well be more important today than Adele was a decade ago—but the comparison is apples to oranges because the cultural mainstream has fractured so dramatically since then.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
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Togo midfielder Samuel Asamoah has undergone surgery after fracturing his neck during a game, his club Guangxi Pingguo have said.—
Colin Millar,
New York Times,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Eddie is happy to sit in the corner with Shane, sucking on his new veneers, and let the women tear each other to shreds, never getting involved.—
Brian Moylan,
Vulture,
10 Oct. 2025
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As the #MeToo movement enters a tumultuous new era, experts seem torn about what Combs' case changed − if anything.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA Today,
10 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Dallas keeps bringing up last year’s six-game win over Colorado in an apparent effort to buck up themselves and their despondent fans, who are rending their garments over a meaningless seven-game losing streak to end the season.—
Mark Lazerus,
New York Times,
20 Apr. 2025
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In lesser hands, this might be one of those theatrical pieces that offers a nice excuse for actors to rend garments and gnash teeth onscreen — the sort of cinéma du Off-Broadway favored by microbudget indie directors and arthouse die-hards.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
6 Sep. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Rift.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rift. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
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