as in fissure
an irregular usually narrow break in a surface created by pressure
my fishing line managed to get wedged in a cleft in the rocks
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Recent Examples of cleft
Plowshare: an agricultural implement for turning soil, for gouging a cleft in the earth.
—
Literary Hub, 11 June 2025
The group of four were scaling the Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft that is popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles northeast of Seattle.
—CBS News, 14 May 2025
But today, the most important political cleft is not the fading distinction between right and left, but the rising conflict between liberal and illiberal, democratic and autocratic.
—David Frum, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2025
Valproic acid causes birth defects that can be detected in utero such as oral clefts or spina bifida.
—Almut Winterstein, The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cleft
Literary Hub, 11 June 2025
The group of four were scaling the Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft that is popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles northeast of Seattle.
—CBS News, 14 May 2025
But today, the most important political cleft is not the fading distinction between right and left, but the rising conflict between liberal and illiberal, democratic and autocratic.
—David Frum, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2025
Valproic acid causes birth defects that can be detected in utero such as oral clefts or spina bifida.
—Almut Winterstein, The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cleft
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleft
Noun
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But the 7th District has also exposed a fissure among the city’s left-leaning unions, as the CTU has backed Conyears-Ervin and contributed $72,500 to her state central committee fund.—
Alice Yin,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Mar. 2026
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Sandstone and limestone provided fissures and fractures where these hydrocarbons could sit, and caprock kept everything in place.—
Stephanie Pappas,
Scientific American,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The trail will typically lead you to cracks and crevices where the colony is hidden.—
Alexandra Kelly,
Martha Stewart,
13 Mar. 2026
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This helps the cake slide out of the crevices smoothly and easily without sticking to the pan.—
Karla Walsh,
Better Homes & Gardens,
12 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cleft.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cleft. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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