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Glite Dictionary
cleft palate

cleft palate

4 5.1
A split in the roof of the mouth from birth that makes eating and speaking hard
  • noun
  • /klɛft ˈpælɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : paladar hendido
  • Maybe you've got a kid with a cleft palate and you can't afford the surgery.
  • children with cleft palate

Maybe you've got a kid with a cleft palate and you can't afford the surgery.

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Examples

  • Many children born with a cleft palate receive surgery to help them speak and eat normally.

  • Support groups for families of children with a cleft palate provide valuable advice and encouragement.

  • Eight children without cleft palates served as controls.

    Academic text (2012)

  • The store clerk, an older, watery-eyed man with a cleft palate, brought me several from the back.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • None of the listeners reported familiarity with speech characteristics of children with repaired cleft palate.

    Academic text (2012)

  • My job is to help children find their voices—kinds that come to school mute, or with lisps or cleft palates.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The doctor explained that a cleft palate is a common condition that can be treated early in life.

Antonyms

normal
∞ 1.0

Usual or expected in most situations

Surface Forms

cleft palate singular
cleft palates plural

Morphology

cleft + palate

Both constituents are semantically transparent: 'cleft' means a split and 'palate' is the roof of the mouth, so the compound clearly denotes a split in the roof of the mouth. This is a compositional medical term with cross-linguistic parallels, so a B1 learner who knows both words would be expected to infer the meaning.

Etymology

Cleft palate comes from a very clear picture: cleft means a 'split' and palate means the roof of the mouth, so it describes a split in the mouth that someone is born with. That's why the term means an 'opening' in the roof of the mouth that can make feeding and speaking difficult.