cleaver
/ˈklivɚ/noun
cleaver is spelled C-L-E-A-V-E-R: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,462nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cleaver means “A squarish, heavy knife used by butchers for hacking through bones, etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cleaver is cleavers.
How many letters and syllables are in cleaver?
| Letters | 7: C-L-E-A-V-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words; the 27,462nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is cleaver?
Cleaver appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,462nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cleaver?
- US /ˈklivɚ/
Cleaver has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cleaver.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with cleaver?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as cleaver from its last stressed vowel (/ivəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of cleaver
- cleavers plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cleaver mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A squarish, heavy knife used by butchers for hacking through bones, etc.
- 2
A Paleolithic biface.
- 3
A type of clave, or rhythm stick, a concussive musical instrument used in traditional Bahamian music.
- 4
The act of eliminating someone or something, especially when done by someone with a history of other eliminations; a dismissal, rejection, or removal.
- 5
A type of oar blade with an asymmetric, mostly rectangular shape that resembles a cleaving knife.
- 6
A line segment that bisects the perimeter of a triangle and has one endpoint at the midpoint of one of the triangle's three sides.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cleaver in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a squarish knife used for hacking:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cleaver come from?
From Middle English clevere, equivalent to cleave + -er.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).