cleavage

American  

[klee-vij] / ˈkli vɪdʒ /

noun

cleavages plural

1. the act of cleaving or splitting.

2. the state of being cleft.

3. the area between a woman's breasts, especially when revealed by a low-cut neckline.

4. a critical division in opinion, beliefs, interests, etc., as leading to opposition between two groups.

   a growing cleavage between the Conservative and Liberal wings of the party.

5. the tendency of crystals, certain minerals, rocks, etc., to break in preferred directions so as to yield more or less smooth surfaces cleavageplanes.

6. Embryology. the total or partial division of the egg into smaller cells or blastomeres.

7. Also called scission.  Chemistry. the breaking down of a molecule or compound into simpler structures.

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cleavage British  

/ ˈkliːvɪdʒ /

noun

1. informal the separation between a woman's breasts, esp as revealed by a low-cut dress

2. a division or split

3. (of crystals) the act of splitting or the tendency to split along definite planes so as to yield smooth surfaces

4. Also called: segmentation.  embryol (in animals) the repeated division of a fertilized ovum into a solid ball of cells (a morula), which later becomes hollow (a blastula)

5. the breaking of a chemical bond in a molecule to give smaller molecules or radicals

6. geology the natural splitting of certain rocks, or minerals such as slates, or micas along the planes of weakness

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cleavage Scientific  

/ klē′vĭj /

1. Geology The breaking of certain minerals along specific planes, making smooth surfaces. These surfaces are parallel to the faces of the molecular crystals that make up the minerals. A mineral that exhibits cleavage breaks into smooth pieces with the same pattern of parallel surfaces regardless of how many times it is broken. Some minerals, like quartz, do not have a cleavage and break into uneven pieces with rough surfaces.

2. Biology

   1. The series of mitotic cell divisions by which a single fertilized egg cell becomes a many-celled blastula. Each division produces cells half the size of the parent cell.

   2. Any of the single cell divisions in such a series.

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cleavage Cultural  

1. The process by which an animal cell divides into two daughter cells after mitosis. In an embryo, this process is repeated many times and leads to the formation of the blastula.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cleavages
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cleavage

First recorded in 1810–20; cleave ² + -age

Explanation

Cleavage is a word for a kind of splitting or separation: it's mainly used for the split between a woman's breasts. We can talk about many kinds of cleavage, such as the splitting of a cell or a hunk of wood. Political movements will often have a cleavage, as differences of opinion create factions. This word is interesting because cleavage is not only a separation, but it can mean a bringing together. When you think of the cleavage created by a woman's breasts — stop staring, by the way — you can see the separation and bringing together very well.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cleavage cleavages

“It created a cleavage with the United States that was really necessary.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026

“Although race is often cited as the central cleavage in America, the single most powerful predictor of voting intention is religion,” the Economist noted.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024

Going after its leaders would risk a major cleavage.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2023

The microbes use "enzymatic scissors" whose catalytic effect is based on so-called beta-elimination: a special type of reaction for the flexible cleavage of chemical bonds, including those of C-glycosides.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2023

Ifemelu looked at Ranyinudo’s dress, its thin straps, its pleated neckline that showed no cleavage.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“There are toxic cleavages and an incipient social fragmentation that can easily turn into instability.”

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2024

Pop music has always gone hand in hand with strong opinions and heated debates — including the kinds of generational cleavages that inspire finger-wagging lectures.

From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2021

More recently, cleavages stemming from class, race, religion, gender, and ethnicity, split the country into antagonistic factions.

From Salon ● Dec. 28, 2020

It accelerated with the Vietnam War, which Peters saw as creating class cleavages between those who fought and those who didn’t.

From Washington Post ● May 4, 2017

Moreover, the entirely artificial nature of the State boundaries, representing no necessary cleavages and traversed haphazard by the lines of communication, made some of these State foundations unnecessary and others inadequate to a convergent demand.

From An Englishman Looks at the World by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Related Words

• chasm
• rift
• schism