cliff
noun
a high steep face of a rock.
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cliff
1 American
[klif]
/ klɪf /
noun
-
cliffs
plural
-
a high steep face of a rock.
- Synonyms:
- crag, ledge, promontory, bluff
-
a critical point or situation beyond which something bad or undesirable may occur.
The committee is right up to the cliff with no deal in sight.
Cliff
2
American
[klif]
/ klɪf /
noun
cliff
British
/ klɪf /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cliff
before 900; Middle English clif, Old English, cognate with Dutch, Low German, Old Norse klif
Explanation
A cliff is a steep and often sheer rock face. If you stand on the edge of a cliff and peer over, you'll be able to see the waves crashing on the rocks below. But if you don't watch your step, you could fall right off that cliff. So many action movies feature a scene in which a car chase leads to a car full of villains plunging spectacularly off a steep rock wall, or cliff. As the car hurtles over the edge of the cliff and smashes onto the rocks below, it invariably explodes in a shower of flames and a cloud of smoke.
Vocabulary lists containing cliff
Physical Geography - Introductory
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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Physical Geography - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nelson is swept away and under the snow, toward a cliff.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
I received this message while gazing out at the Atlantic Ocean parked atop a cliff in the emptiness of Northwest Scotland; the first message from the outside world I’d received in 23 days.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
But with his country teetering on a cliff, Mr. Lévy’s attention is elsewhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
That this was a question she had wrestled with, but when you see that you are off the cliff, it will become clear what you have to do.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
The children sat under a small overhang in the cliff that gave them a little protection.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
"We're knocking on the door of this zeptoverse," Dr Harry Cliff, of Cambridge University who led the analysis of the data, told BBC News.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
This is heartwarming but also discombobulating for the band’s longtime co-manager, Cliff Burnstein.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
“The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” “Like ‘Oppenheimer’ three years ago, ‘The Odyssey’ is the clear front-runner at this early stage in the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
“It’s easy for advisers to get in a bubble and forget what others don’t know,” said Cliff Robb, a professor of finance at Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey College of Business.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
The cottage and lighthouses were situated on a flat stretch of land between the fashionable Cliff and the Bathing Beach.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
For nearly 1,000 years, farmers have scratched out a living on this rocky island as soil, sheep and people have been blown over its treacherous cliffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Researchers identified four ice caps, along with rocky cliffs extending above the ice and glaciers flowing outward from the ice caps.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
Some of the "hanging coffins" can still be seen on nearby Sagada cliffs.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
"Learning how signs of ancient life show up in Earth rocks like these Scottish cliffs can help us understand the story of habitability and the potential for biosignatures to be preserved and detected on Mars."
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
It’s the opposite of Veterans Park—there’s no playground or grass, just woods and trails and a rocky beach along the lake that becomes cliffs the farther out you go.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
