different between interstice vs cleft

English

Etymology

Old French interstice, from Latin interstitium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n?t??.st?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n?t?.st?s/

Noun

interstice (plural interstices)

1. A small opening or space between objects, especially adjacent objects or objects set closely together, as between cords in a rope or components of a multiconductor electrical cable or between atoms in a crystal.
2. (figuratively) A fragment of space.
3. An interval of time required by the Roman Catholic Church between the attainment of different degrees of an order.
4. (by extension) A small interval of time free to be spent on activities other than one's primary goal.

Quotations

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

Synonyms

• (small opening or space between objects): chink, crack, cranny, crevice, fissure, gap, slit; see also Thesaurus:interspace or Thesaurus:hole

Derived terms

• interstitial

Translations

Further reading

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

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.t??.stis/

Noun

interstice m (plural interstices)

1. (religion) interstice
2. gap, interval

Derived terms

• interstitiel

Further reading

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

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