different between fracture vs cleft

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fracture, from Latin fract?ra (“a breach, fracture, cleft”), from frangere (“to break”), past participle fractus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg-, from whence also English break. See fraction. Doublet of fraktur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?æk.t??/, /?f?æk.tj?/

Noun

fracture (plural fractures)

1. An instance of breaking, a place where something has broken.
2. (medicine) A break in bone or cartilage.
3. (geology) A fault or crack in a rock.

Derived terms

Related terms

• fractal
• fraction
• fragment

Translations

Verb

fracture (third-person singular simple present fractures, present participle fracturing, simple past and past participle fractured)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break, or cause something to break.
2. (transitive, slang) To amuse (a person) greatly; to split someone's sides.

Translations

Further reading

• fracture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fracture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Middle French fracture, from late Old French fracture, borrowed from Latin fract?ra. Compare the inherited Old French fraiture, and the frainture (influenced by fraindre).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?ak.ty?/

Noun

fracture f (plural fractures)

1. fracture

Related terms

• fraction

Descendants

• ? Romanian: fractur?

Further reading

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

Latin

Participle

fr?ct?re

1. vocative masculine singular of fr?ct?rus

Spanish

Verb

fracture

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of fracturar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of fracturar.

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