different between abyss vs cleft

English

Alternative forms

• abysm, abime

Etymology

From Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus (“a bottomless gulf”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (ábussos, “bottomless”), from ?- (a-, “not”) + ?????? (bussós, “deep place”), from ????? (buthós, “deep place”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??b?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??b?s/, /æ?b?s/, enPR: ?-b?s'
• Rhymes: -?s
• Hyphenation: a?byss

Noun

abyss (plural abysses)

1. Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]
2. (frequently figuratively) A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable; any void space. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
3. Anything infinite, immeasurable, or profound. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
4. Moral depravity; vast intellectual or moral depth.

5. An impending catastrophic happening.
6. (heraldry) The center of an escutcheon.
7. (oceanography) The abyssal zone.
8. (figuratively) A difference, especially a large difference, between groups.

Usage notes

• (impending catastrophic happening): It is typically preceded by the word the.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:abyss.

Synonyms

• (difference): gulf

Derived terms

Related terms

• abysmal

Translations

References

Anagrams

• bassy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

From Middle English clift, from Old English ?eclyft, from Proto-Germanic *(ga)kluftiz. Compare Dutch klucht (“chaotic”), Swedish klyft (“cave, den”) cave, den, German Kluft. See cleave.

Noun

cleft (plural clefts)

1. An opening, fissure, or V-shaped indentation made by or as if by splitting.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXVI:

     Then came some palsied oak, a cleft in him / Like a distorted mouth that splits its rim / Gaping at death, and dies while it recoils.

2. A piece made by splitting.

   a cleft of wood

3. A disease of horses; a crack on the band of the pastern.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• dimple

Verb

cleft (third-person singular simple present clefts, present participle clefting, simple past and past participle clefted)

1. (linguistics) 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."

Related terms

• clefting
• cleft sentence

Etymology 2

Verb

cleft

1. simple past tense and past participle of cleave

Adjective

cleft (not comparable)

1. split, divided, or partially divided into two.

   Synonym: cloven

Translations