Word.ws English Dictionary

cleft sentences

cleft sentences is the plural of cleft sentence.

Meaning of cleft sentence

Noun

cleft sentence (plural cleft sentences)

  1. A complex sentence expressible by a simple one, having a dependent clause in front of the main clause and, typically, stressing a particular constituent.
    • Quirk et al (1972) say about the cleft sentence that it is "...so called because it divides a single clause into two separate sections, each with its own verb".1978, Per-Kristian Halvorsen, The Syntax and Semantics of Cleft Constructions, Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, page 28

Questions about cleft sentences

What is cleft sentences the plural of?
Cleft sentences is the plural of cleft sentence.

Words near cleft sentences in the dictionary

  1. cleft lips
  2. cleft of Venus
  3. cleft palate
  4. cleft palates
  5. cleft sentence
  6. cleft sentences
  7. cleft stick
  8. cleft sticks
  9. clefted
  10. cleftgraft
  11. cleftgrafted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cleft sentences (page history and authors); cleft sentence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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