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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rive.

To tear apart by force; to rend; to split; to cleave.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹaɪv/General-American, UK

  1. To tear apart by force; to rend; to split; to cleave.

    transitive

  2. To pierce or cleave with a weapon.

    archaic · transitive

  3. To break apart; to split.

    intransitive

  4. To burst open; explode; discharge.

    rare · transitive

  5. To use a technique of splitting or sawing wood radially from a log (e.g. clapboards).

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- Proto-Germanic *rīfaną Old Norse rífabor. Middle English riven English rive From Middle English riven (“to rive”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse rífa (“to rend, tear apart”), from Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (“to tear, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to crumble, tear”). Cognate with Danish rive (“to tear”), Old Frisian rīva (“to tear”), Old English ārǣfan (“to let loose, unwrap”), Old Norse ript (“breach of contract, rift”), Norwegian Bokmål rive (“to tear”), Swedish riva (”to tear”) and Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”). More at rift.

noun/ɹaɪv/General-American, UK

  1. A place torn; a rent; a rift.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- Proto-Germanic *rīfaną Old Norse rífabor. Middle English riven English rive From Middle English riven (“to rive”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse rífa (“to rend, tear apart”), from Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (“to tear, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to crumble, tear”). Cognate with Danish rive (“to tear”), Old Frisian rīva (“to tear”), Old English ārǣfan (“to let loose, unwrap”), Old Norse ript (“breach of contract, rift”), Norwegian Bokmål rive (“to tear”), Swedish riva (”to tear”) and Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”). More at rift.

noun/ɹaɪv/General-American, UK

  1. A bank or shore.

Where this word comes from

Compare Latin ripa (“shore”).

verb/ɹaɪv/General-American, UK

  1. To land.

Where this word comes from

Compare Latin ripa (“shore”).

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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.