different between crevice vs cavity

English

Etymology

From Middle English crevice, from Old French crevace, from crever (“to break, burst”), from Latin crepare (“to break, burst, crack”). Doublet of crevasse.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??v?s/

Noun

crevice (plural crevices)

1. A narrow crack or fissure, as in a rock or wall.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Mariana

     The mouse, / Behind the mouldering wainscot, shrieked, / Or from the crevice peer'd about.

   • 16 March, 1926, Virginia Woolf, letter to V. Sackville-West

     I can't tell you how urbane and sprightly the old poll parrot was; and […] not a pocket, not a crevice, of pomp, humbug, respectability in him: he was fresh as a daisy.

Translations

Verb

crevice (third-person singular simple present crevices, present participle crevicing, simple past and past participle creviced)

1. To crack; to flaw.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir H. Wotton to this entry?)

References

• crevice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• crevice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• crevice at OneLook Dictionary Search

Old French

Alternative forms

• crevez, crevis, crevesce, creveche, creveis, escrevise, escreveice, escreviche

Etymology

From either Frankish *krebitja (“crayfish”), diminutive of *krebit (“crab”), from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz (“crab, cancer”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb?-, *gereb?- (“to scratch, crawl”), or from Old High German krebiz (“edible crustacean, crab”) (German Krebs (“crab”)), from the same source. Cognate with Middle Low German kr?vet (“crab”), Dutch kreeft (“crayfish, lobster”), Old English crabba (“crab”).

Noun

crevice f (oblique plural crevices, nominative singular crevice, nominative plural crevices)

1. crayfish, crawfish

Descendants

• Middle French: escrevice, escrevisse, escrevisce, crevis, creviche, crevice
  • French: écrevisse
• ? Middle Dutch: crevetse
• ? Middle English: crevis, crevyse, creuez, crevez, crevise, creveys, crevesse, krevys
  • English: crevis; crayfish, crawfish (influenced by fish)

English

Etymology

From Middle English cavity, from Middle French cavité, from Late Latin cavitas, from Latin cavus (“hollow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæv?ti/
• • (US) IPA^(key): [?k?æv??i]

Noun

cavity (plural cavities)

1. A hole or hollow depression.
2. A hollow area within the body (such as the sinuses).
3. (dentistry) A small or large hole in a tooth caused by caries; often also a soft area adjacent to the hole also affected by caries.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hole
• (dentistry): caries

Derived terms

Related terms

• cave
• concave
• excavate
• excavation
• excavator

Translations

Further reading

• cavity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cavity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cavity at OneLook Dictionary Search