riven

adjective

riv·​en ˈri-vən 

: split apart

riven wood [=wood split apart along the grain]

: divided into pieces or factions

a riven nation

… beautifully nuanced portraits of a riven people, separated by more than an ocean.

—Mylène Dressler

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Early in this century the Iraq War became a defining moment for the United States, for the Republican Party, and for the conservative movement, which at first largely backed the effort, only to become riven over it later. —Daniel Foster, National Review, 13 Apr. 2023

These moves have further inflamed an already deeply riven country and drawn the largest protests in over a decade. —Ilan Ben Zion, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Mar. 2023

Nearly a century later, Iraq remained too riven with ethnic and sectarian frictions to support anything resembling a Western-style democracy. —Loren Thompson, Forbes, 14 Apr. 2022

And in this riven piece of steel – and the nearly 500 others like it all across the country – the violence of that day lives on. —CBS News, 5 Sep. 2021

Nowhere is the riven soul of industrial capitalism on starker display than in Birmingham, Alabama. —Robert Kunzig, National Geographic, 13 Oct. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1560, in the meaning defined above