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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rift.

A chasm or fissure.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɹɪft/
  1. A chasm or fissure.

    The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
  2. A lack of cohesion; a state of conflict, incompatibility, or emotional distance.

    figuratively
    My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
  3. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.

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

Where this word comes from

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

verb/ɹɪft/
  1. To form a rift; to split open.

    intransitive
  2. To cleave; to rive; to split.

    transitive
    to rift an oak
Where this word comes from

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

verb/ɹɪft/
  1. To belch.

Where this word comes from

From Old Norse rypta.

verb/ɹɪft/
  1. past participle of rive

    form-of · obsolete · participle · past
    The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.