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Screenshots from a September 12 TikTok video of a cleft palate puppy using a pacifier to mimic his nursing littermates.—Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025 Two-month-old Onyxx Cooley was born with a cleft palate but apparently otherwise healthy.—Audrey Dutton, ProPublica, 26 Aug. 2025 Mary! Fun fact about this sweet girl: She was born with a cleft palate.—Trish Stinger, Kansas City Star, 9 July 2025 There’s one story of a boy with a cleft palate who adopted a dog that had a cleft palate too.—Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 11 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for cleft palate
: a split in the roof of the mouth that occurs as a birth defect
Medical Definition
cleft palate
noun
: congenital fissure of the roof of the mouth produced by failure of the two maxillae to unite during embryonic development and often associated with cleft lip
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