rift
Americannoun
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rifts
plural
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an opening made by splitting, cleaving, etc.; fissure; cleft; chink.
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an open space, as in a forest or cloud mass, or a clear interval.
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a break in friendly relations.
a rift between two people; a rift between two nations.
- Synonyms:
- falling-out, estrangement, rupture, breach
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a difference in opinion, belief, or interest that causes such a break in friendly relations.
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Geology.
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a fault.
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a graben of regional extent.
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the plane or direction along which a log or mass of granite can most easily be split.
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wood or a piece of wood that has been split radially from a log.
verb (used with or without object)
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rifts,
present (3rd person singular)
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rifted,
past participle, past
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rifting
present participle
noun
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a gap or space made by cleaving or splitting; fissure
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geology a long narrow zone of faulting resulting from tensional stress in the earth's crust
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a gap between two cloud masses; break or chink
he saw the sun through a rift in the clouds
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a break in friendly relations between people, nations, etc
verb
noun
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a shallow or rocky part in a stream
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the backwash from a wave that has just broken
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A continental rift.
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A narrow break, crack, or other opening in a rock, usually made by cracking or splitting.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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riftsimple
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riftssimple
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have riftedperfect
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has riftedperfect
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am riftingprogressive
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are riftingprogressive
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is riftingprogressive
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have been riftingperfect progressive
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has been riftingperfect progressive
Past
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riftedsimple
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had riftedperfect
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was riftingprogressive
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were riftingprogressive
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had been riftingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rift
1250–1300; Middle English < Old Norse ript breaking of an agreement (compare Danish, Norwegian rift cleavage), derivative of rīfa to tear (cognate with rive )
Explanation
Rift sounds like rip, and it's helpful to think of it that way. When there is a rift in a political party over a particular policy, it is like a rip or tear in the fabric of the group. Rift has a slightly different sense than break. A group can have a rift without having fully broken apart. A rift can heal, though a break is permanent. A rift can arise between sisters over whose turn it is to do dishes; it can quickly heal when parents promise an ice cream trip when the dishes are done. The Earth's crust has rifts, where it's splitting apart, like in East Africa.
Vocabulary lists containing rift
Geological Features
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Africa - Introductory
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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:
Is it a rift, kerfuffle, brawl or hairline fracture?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
It comes after head coach Jorge Jesus earlier said there was no rift with the captain, following claims the five-times Ballon d'Or winner had refused to train.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
“There is a real rift across the globe, so experiencing a moment where the shared desire is simply to unite, to gather, and to be together—that feels good.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
When Axios reported that Harris had privately called Zogby and others to try to mend the rift, he wouldn’t comment at the time.
From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026
The population is suddenly split into two by some sort of geographical rift.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
I studied a lot of church literature because churches have a lot of reckonings and internal rifts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Parker has been mending rifts professionally for 25 years, but she insists that her skill set shouldn’t be special.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
In most continental rifts, deformation follows a relatively predictable pattern.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
Harry's 2023 autobiography, "Spare", lifted the veil on his royal rifts, describing William as his "arch-nemesis" and alleging he physically attacked him in a blazing 2019 row about Meghan.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
Superplumes may also be responsible for the rifts that cause continents to break up.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
"In essence, we now have a front row seat to observe a critical rifting phase that had fundamentally shaped all rifted margins across the world," says co-author Folarin Kolawole, who is also with Lamont.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
When Columbia rifted apart, the division happened within the area of the Purcell/Belt rocks.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
This region was rifted apart during the breakup of the supercontinent Columbia, after which sedimentation continued on the western margin of Laurentia with the deposition of the Windermere Group.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Heezen thinks that the Atlantic Ocean is a very old crack that has rifted over and over and grown 3,000 miles wide.
From Time Magazine Archive
All along the grim rifted coast the dread marks of fire, and flood, and desolation were visible.
From The Land of Thor by J. Ross (John Ross) Browne
She explained that geological activity such as mountain building and continental rifting has disturbed many older rocks, making them more difficult to analyze.
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
"The thinner the crust gets, the weaker it becomes, which helps promote continued rifting," Rowan says.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
Their results show the carbonatites were emplaced between 830 and 820 million years ago, during a key phase of continental rifting before Rodinia fully broke apart.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2026
“There are a variety of older structures in the range, too, due to ancient rifting, that could be reactivated.”
From National Geographic ● Sep. 11, 2023
Glitter on the mountain heights you rifting specters bright.
From The Secret of the Creation by Howard D. Pollyen
Definitions 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.
