different between cleft vs separation

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

English

Etymology

Attested in the 15th Century C.E.; borrowed from Old French separacion, from Latin separatio, separationem.Morphologically separate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?p???e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

separation (countable and uncountable, plural separations)

1. The act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated.

   Synonyms: detachment, disjunction, division, rupture, severance; see also Thesaurus:separation

   Antonyms: annexation, combination, unification; see also Thesaurus:junction

2. The act or condition of two or more people being separated from one another.
3. The act or condition of a married couple living in separate homes while remaining legally married.
   1. (law) An agreement legalizing such an arrangement.

      Synonym: divorce from bed and board
4. The place at which a division occurs.

   Synonyms: border, boundary, demarcation
5. An interval, gap or space that separates things or people.

   Synonyms: break, interstice; see also Thesaurus:interspace
6. An object that separates two spaces.

   Synonyms: barrier, separator
7. (military) Departure from active duty, while not necessarily leaving the service entirely.

Derived terms

See also

• division
• fission

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “separation”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• antioperas, asperation