Synonyms of cleft

cleft

noun

ˈkleft 

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

• fissure
• crevice
• rift
• crack
• split
• gap
• cranny
• fracture
• chink
• check
• slit
• crevasse
• rupture
• opening
• incision
• breach
• hairline
• gash
• craze
• cut

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of cleft

Doctors couldn't tell her how severe the cleft would be or any other complications that may be involved with Benji's diagnosis. — Daniella Gray, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 July 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

Many birth defects are treatable; orofacial clefts and some heart defects, for example, can be corrected with surgery. — Almut Winterstein, The Conversation, 30 Jan. 2025