How to Use cleft in a Sentence

cleft

1 of 2 noun

• The river begins as a trickle of water from a cleft in the rock.
• He has a distinctive cleft in his chin.
• Williams pulled her top lip up over her teeth to demonstrate the look of a cleft.
  — Lisa Respers France, CNN, 16 Jan. 2020
• His bed was overlaid with cardboard and tucked into a cleft of piers and brush.
  — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 5 Feb. 2018
• Hair tumbled down his back, his sagging pants exposed his ass-cleft.
  — John Horgan, Scientific American, 14 Feb. 2021
• From his flat top, cleft chin, starched collar, and tight shirt to the crease in his trousers tucked into black boots.
  — Literary Hub, 27 Mar. 2026
• How can others learn more about Smile Train and help children with clefts?
  — Jillian Ruffo, PEOPLE.com, 6 Sep. 2017
• No such confusion surrounds the peach, with its telltale cleft.
  — Ligaya Mishan Melody Melamed, New York Times, 23 Nov. 2022
• Straight into the cleft tucks an emerald fish, its head entirely enveloped.
  — Leah Ollman, latimes.com, 5 June 2018
• Apparently growing out of the cleft between her breasts was a large mauve orchid.
  — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
• Some adults born with a cleft have had more than 20 operations on their mouth, nose and jaw throughout their life.
  — Alex Orlando, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2021
• Five trailheads provide starting points, including one that’s just a short stroll from the falls, a cleft hewed from steep cliffs.
  — Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 28 Mar. 2023
• This afternoon, old men wilt in a cleft in the rocks, and a schoolgirl hauls a plastic bag heavy with one fat octopus.
  — Antonia Quirke, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Aug. 2019
• Hutchinson playfully adds a watery horizon in a cleft between high ridges, making his world turn.
  — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Apr. 2018
• Pilonidal cysts develop near the crease between the buttocks, known as the intergluteal cleft.
  — Scott Sundick, Verywell Health, 25 June 2023
• Holes, slits and clefts are common, surrounded by clay inscribed with organic patterns.
  — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2023
• The six-year-old has so far had seven operations, three to reconstruct his face and close the gaps that the cleft created.
  — Lizzie Parry, Fox News, 9 Mar. 2018
• Tucked into cleft below Lee Mountain, the ears stand out as double sandstone pillars.
  — Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 7 Apr. 2023
• Our elders have spent decades placing their children in the cleft of the rock, in the hands of the Almighty, seeking his protection and guidance.
  — Stacy Dollar, ExpressNews.com, 3 May 2020
• One theory posited that if a pregnant woman was carrying a sharp object during an eclipse, her infant could be born with a cleft.
  — Alex Orlando, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2021
• Scientists know that smoking, diabetes and certain medicines used to treat epilepsy can boost a parent’s risk of having a baby with a cleft.
  — Alex Orlando, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2021
• This was when the researchers swabbed the children’s gingival sulci (the clefts between teeth and gums, in which bacteria collect) to find out what was there.
  — The Economist, 21 Sep. 2017
• From the front, approached from the circle, the cleft is a dark opening, a hole that, as Richards says, appears to be an entrance into the rock itself.
  — Hugh Raffles, The New York Review of Books, 9 Oct. 2020
• What’s more, the cleft atoms spat out stray neutrons which were themselves capable of triggering fission in other nearby nuclei.
  — Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian, 15 Dec. 2017
• Mally said his life changed shortly after moving to the Philippines and helping children with cleft pallet problems.
  — Charles Rabin, miamiherald, 17 May 2018
• Locals had eyed the spot for years before a group summoned up the courage in 2006, scrambled down a narrow cleft in the rocks, and paddled out.
  — New York Times, 12 Aug. 2019
• Jasmaine was born with a bilateral cleft lip, a birth defect that occurs when the lips or other parts of the mouth don't fuse together, leaving an opening.
  — Michelle Hunter, NOLA.com, 19 July 2017
• That didn’t stop Benjamin’s faith from becoming a cleft between him and his fellow Christian senators.
  — Andrea Cooper, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Sep. 2020
• Where the trail crosses Summit Road, the route begins a continual climb on edge-hugging switchbacks that dodge in and out of stony clefts and tight bends.
  — Mare Czinar, azcentral, 13 Nov. 2019
• In Cappadocia, a region in south-central Turkey, a river carved a deep cleft in the mountains and left behind a network of caves in the soft stone.
  — The Christian Science Monitor, 18 Mar. 2021

cleft

2 of 2 adjective

• One of the signs of the condition is the formation of branchial cleft cysts.
  — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 3 Jan. 2024
• Their work consists of surgeries for conditions such as cleft palates, crossed eyes, burn scars and hernia repairs.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 June 2021
• The same scalpel or bone saw that cut a human also cleft sheep, horses, pigs and other animals in distress.
  — Katherine Ott, The Conversation, 2 July 2026
• When spaces are left between the arches, certain branchial anomalies like branchial cleft cysts can develop.
  — Ani Freedman, Fortune Well, 16 Oct. 2024
• Other Chinese are more willing to adopt children with treatable conditions like cleft palates.
  — The Economist, 6 June 2020
• Primary’s Johns said such critiques ignore the psychosocial issues children with cleft deal with.
  — Megan Rose, ProPublica, 6 Mar. 2024
• Andersen, who is originally from Denmark, is wiry and clean cut, with a cleft chin and clipped enunciation.
  — Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2021
• Successful cleft treatment repairs those issues, leaving patients’ faces with little evidence of their cleft issues by the time they are grown.
  — Megan Rose, ProPublica, 6 Mar. 2024
• She has been involved in charitable work for decades, visiting foreign countries through a non-profit that provides surgery to children with cleft lips or palates and no access to care.
  — Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Arizona Republic, 24 June 2021
• High-altitude deliveries often result in lighter babies, and some research connects them with birth defects such as cleft lips and issues with heart function.
  — Hannah Weinberger, Outside Online, 13 Aug. 2014
• Operation Smile connects children and young adults with cleft conditions worldwide with access to safe surgical care to improve their lives and smiles.
  — Nicole Cormier, Dallas News, 23 Sep. 2020
• In the El Sidrón remains, the congenital features included cleft or asymmetric vertebrae, a misshapen kneecap and a baby tooth retained into adulthood.
  — Bridget Alex, Discover Magazine, 23 Feb. 2019
• Advertisement When infinitives are cleft, some folks, regardless of actual profession, become exercised.
  — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Jan. 2024
• Operation Smile operates as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides life-improving cleft surgery, dentistry, orthodontics, speech therapy and psychological services.
  — 'smitty' Robert J. Smith, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023
• The organization — a global nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gap of essential surgeries and healthcare, starting with cleft surgery and comprehensive care — has announced the program lineup for its New York Operation Smile Gala.
  — Chris Gardner, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019