cleft
/ˈklɛft/noun, verb, adjective
cleft is spelled C-L-E-F-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,168th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cleft means “An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cleft is clefts.
How many letters and syllables are in cleft?
| Letters | 5: C-L-E-F-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,168th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is cleft?
Cleft appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,168th 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 cleft?
- /ˈklɛft/
- [ˈkʰl̥ɛft]
Cleft has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cleft.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cleft
- clefts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- clefting participle, present
- clefted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cleft mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.
The river flows through a cleft in the mountains.
- 2
A piece made by splitting.
a cleft of wood
- 3
A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.
verb
- 1
To syntactically separate a prominent constituent from the rest of the clause that concerns it, such as threat in "The threat which I saw but which he didn't see, was his downfall."
- 2
simple past and past participle of cleave
adjective
- 1
split, divided, or partially divided into two.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cleft in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense opening made or as if made by splitting:
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 cleft come from?
From Middle English clift, from Old English ġeclyft, from Proto-West Germanic *klufti, from Proto-Germanic *kluftiz, equivalent to cleave + -t (“-th”). Compare Dutch klucht (“coarse comedy”), Swedish klyft (“cave, den”), German Kluft. See cleave.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).