# cleft

/ˈkɫɛft/ (US) · /klˈɛft/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/cleft
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. a crack or opening

noun · CEFR C1 · Literary

a narrow opening or crack, especially in a rock or the ground.

For teachers: a fissure, crack, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.

- The small plant grew out of a cleft in the giant rock.
- The climbers sought refuge in a narrow cleft in the cliff face as the sudden storm broke over the ridge.

### 2. split in two

adjective · CEFR C1 · Technical

divided or split into two parts.

For teachers: split, divided, or partially divided into two distinct sections.

- Some animals, like cows and goats, have cleft hooves.
- The surgeon explained the procedure to repair the cleft palate, noting the importance of early intervention for speech development.

### 3. grammar construction

verb · CEFR C2 · Technical · Academic

to change a sentence to focus on one part, like saying 'It was him who did it' instead of 'He did it'.

For teachers: to syntactically divide a clause into two parts to give focus to a specific constituent, typically using an 'it-cleft' or 'wh-cleft' structure.

- In the sentence 'It was the rain that stopped us', the speaker used a cleft to focus on the cause.
- The author frequently employs cleft sentences to emphasize the agency of his protagonists within the complex narrative structure.

## Examples

- The deep cleft in the rock was formed by years of erosion.
- Linguists study how a cleft in the vowel sound eventually led to the creation of two distinct phonemes in the modern language.
- The geological survey revealed a narrow cleft in the limestone bedrock that had remained hidden beneath layers of sediment for millions of years.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.