different between fracture vs rift

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fracture, from Latin fract?ra (“a breach, fracture, cleft”), from frangere (“to break”), past participle fractus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg-, from whence also English break. See fraction. Doublet of fraktur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?æk.t??/, /?f?æk.tj?/

Noun

fracture (plural fractures)

1. An instance of breaking, a place where something has broken.
2. (medicine) A break in bone or cartilage.
3. (geology) A fault or crack in a rock.

Derived terms

Related terms

• fractal
• fraction
• fragment

Translations

Verb

fracture (third-person singular simple present fractures, present participle fracturing, simple past and past participle fractured)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break, or cause something to break.
2. (transitive, slang) To amuse (a person) greatly; to split someone's sides.

Translations

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

From Middle French fracture, from late Old French fracture, borrowed from Latin fract?ra. Compare the inherited Old French fraiture, and the frainture (influenced by fraindre).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?ak.ty?/

Noun

fracture f (plural fractures)

1. fracture

Related terms

• fraction

Descendants

• ? Romanian: fractur?

Further reading

• “fracture” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Participle

fr?ct?re

1. vocative masculine singular of fr?ct?rus

Spanish

Verb

fracture

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of fracturar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of fracturar.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ft, IPA^(key): /??ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Etymology 1

Middle English rift, of North Germanic origin; akin to Danish rift, Norwegian Bokmål rift (“breach”), Old Norse rífa (“to tear”). More at rive.

Noun

rift (plural rifts)

1. A chasm or fissure.

   My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.

   The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.

2. A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 130:

     I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.

3. A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

Derived terms

• rift valley

Translations

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
2. (transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.

   to rift an oak

   • to the dread rattling thunder / Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak / With his own bolt

   • 1822, William Wordsworth, "A Jewish Family (in a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine)" 9-11, [1]

     The Mother—her thou must have seen, / In spirit, ere she came / To dwell these rifted rocks between.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter III, [2]

     he stopped rigid as one petrified and gazed through the rifted logs of the raft into the water.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland and northern Britain) To belch.

Etymology 3

Verb

rift (obsolete)

1. past participle of rive

   The mightie trunck halfe rent, with ragged rift

   Doth roll adowne the rocks, and fall with fearefull drift.

Anagrams

• FTIR, frit

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb rive

Noun

rift f or m (definite singular rifta or riften, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “rift” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb rive or riva

Noun

rift f (definite singular rifta, indefinite plural rifter, definite plural riftene)

1. a rip, tear (in fabric)
2. a break (in the clouds)
3. a scratch (on skin, paint)
4. a rift (geology)

Derived terms

• riftdal

References

• “rift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rift?, *riftij?, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h?reb?- (“to cover; arch over; vault”). Cognate with Old High German peinrefta (“legwear; leggings”), Old Norse ript, ripti (“a kind of cloth; linen jerkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rift/

Noun

rift n (nominative plural rift)

1. a veil; curtain; cloak

Related terms

• rifte

Descendants

• Middle English: rift

Romanian

Etymology

From French rift.

Noun

rift n (plural rifturi)

1. rift

Declension

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse rypta.

Verb

rift (third-person singular present rifts, present participle riftin, past riftit, past participle riftit)

1. to belch, burp