different between crevasse vs cleavage

English

Etymology

From French crevasse. Doublet of crevice.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA^(key): /k???væs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. A crack or fissure in a glacier or snowfield; a chasm.
2. (US) A breach in a canal or river bank.
3. (by extension) Any cleft or fissure.
   • 2010, Scott R. Riley, A Lost Hero Found (page 111)

     I moved my left hand to the small of her back, just above her belt-line and stroked the peach fuzz in her crevasse with my fingers.

4. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.
2. (transitive) To fissure with crevasses.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.vas/
• Rhymes: -as

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +? -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of crever

Further reading

• “crevasse” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• crevassa (dated)

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. (glaciology) crevasse (a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field)

English

Etymology

cleave +? -age

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kli?v?d?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kliv?d?/
• Hyphenation: cleav?age

Noun

cleavage (countable and uncountable, plural cleavages)

1. The act of cleaving or the state of being cleft. [from 19th c.]
2. The hollow or separation between a woman's breasts, especially as revealed by a low neckline. [from 20th c.]
3. (by extension) Any similar separation between two body parts, such as the buttocks or toes.
4. (biology) The repeated division of a cell into daughter cells after mitosis. [from 19th c.]
5. (chemistry) The splitting of a large molecule into smaller ones.
6. (mineralogy) The tendency of a crystal to split along specific planes. [from 19th c.]
7. (politics) The division of voters into voting blocs.

Synonyms

• (separation between breasts): intermammary sulcus

Derived terms

• cleavage furrow
• cleavaged

Related terms

• cleave
• cleft

Translations

See also

• décolletage
• spathic