different between rift vs ravine

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.

Noun

rift (plural rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

3. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

Derived terms

• rift valley

Translations

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.

   to rift an oak

   • to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, "A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)" 9-11, [1]

     The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]

     he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern Britain) To belch.

Etymology 3

Verb

rift (obsolete)

1. past participle of rive

   The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift

   Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.

Anagrams

• FTIR, frit

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb rive

Noun

rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “rift” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb rive or riva

Noun

rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rift?, *riftij?, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h?reb?- (“to cover; arch over; vault”). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (“legwear; leggings”), Old Norse ript, ripti (“a kind of cloth; linen jerkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rift/

Noun

rift n (nominative plural rift)

1. a veil; curtain; cloak

Related terms

• rifte

Descendants

• Middle English: rift

Romanian

Etymology

From French rift.

Noun

rift n (plural rifturi)

1. rift

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular present rifts, present participle riftin, past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from ravine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rap?na (cf. rapine).

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?-v?n?, IPA^(key): /???vi?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n

Noun

ravine (plural ravines)

1. A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.

Derived terms

• ravine-buck
• ravined
• ravine-deer

Related terms

• ravinement

Translations

See also

• canyon
• gorge
• gulley, gully
• valley

Etymology 2

From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from ravine (“rapine”), from Latin rap?na (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æv?n/

Noun

ravine (plural ravines)

1. (archaic) Alternative form of raven (“rapine, rapacity; prey, plunder”)
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H.:

     And he, shall he,
     Man, her last work, who seem’d so fair, […]
     Who trusted God was love indeed
     And love Creation’s final law—
     Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
     With ravine, shriek’d against his creed—
     Who loved, who suffer’d countless ills,
     Who battled for the True, the Just,
     Be blown about the desert dust,
     Or seal’d within the iron hills?

Further reading

• ravine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ravines on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• ravine at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Averni, Erivan, naiver, naïver, vainer

French

Etymology

From the Old French verb raviner (“flow with force; sweep down; pillage, cascade”), or from the noun ravine, raveine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rap?na. Doublet of rapine, a borrowing from the same Latin term.

Pronunciation

• Homophones: ravinent, ravines

Noun

ravine f (plural ravines)

1. A small ravine or gully.
2. Beginning of a furrowing or formation of a ravine.

Related terms

• ravin
• raviner
• ravinement

Verb

ravine

1. first-person singular present indicative of raviner
2. third-person singular present indicative of raviner
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of raviner
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of raviner
5. second-person singular imperative of raviner

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French ravine, from Latin rap?na.

Noun

ravine m (definite singular ravinen, indefinite plural raviner, definite plural ravinene)

1. gully (type of ravine)

References

• “ravine” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “ravine” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French ravine, from Latin rap?na.

Noun

ravine m (definite singular ravinen, indefinite plural ravinar, definite plural ravinane)

1. gully (type of ravine)

References

• “ravine” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.