Dictionary:

cleavage

  (klē'vĭj)

1. The act of splitting or cleaving.
2. The state of being split or cleft; a fissure or division.
3. Mineralogy. The splitting or tendency to split of a crystallized substance along definite crystalline planes, yielding smooth surfaces.
4. Embryology.
   1. The series of mitotic cell divisions that produces a blastula from a fertilized ovum. It is the basis of the multicellularity of complex organisms. Also called segmentation.
   2. Any single cell division in such a series.
5. Chemistry. The splitting of a complex molecule, such as a polysaccharide, into simpler molecules.
6. Informal. The hollow between a woman's breasts, especially as revealed by a low neckline.

The subdivision of eggs into cells called blastomeres. It occurs in eggs activated by fertilization or parthenogenetic agents. Cleavages follow one another so rapidly that there is little opportunity for daughter cells to grow before they divide again. Consequently the size of blastomeres diminishes progressively, although many times unequally, during cleavage. By contrast, the nucleus of each daughter cell enlarges following each cleavage with the result that the ratio of the volume of the nucleus to the volume of cytoplasm (the nucleoplasmic ratio) progressively increases. The cleavage period is said by some authorities to terminate when the nucleoplasmic ratios of various blastomeres attain values characteristic of adult tissues. Cells continue to divide thereafter, but each daughter cell then undergoes a period of growth prior to its division with the result that the nucleoplasmic ratio tends to remain approximately constant for each cell type following termination of cleavage. According to others, cleavage terminates with formation of the definitive blastula. Cleavage appears to be an essential step in development. Although some differentiation occurs in eggs of certain animals when cleavage is blocked experimentally, it is limited and infrequent. See also Blastulation.

Cleavage does more than merely subdivide the substance of the egg quantitatively into smaller units, the blastomeres, which are then of such a size that they can readily undergo the subsequent events of blastulation, gastrulation, and interaction that are involved in formation of tissues and organs. Sooner or later, cleavage segregates different cytoplasmic areas into different blastomeres, thus subdividing the substance of the egg qualitatively. These qualitative cytoplasmic differences among blastomeres are then sufficient to account for the initial establishment of different lines of differentiation in the progeny of different blastomeres, even though the genetic content of all blastomeres is identical. See also Cell lineage.

noun

A usually narrow partial opening caused by splitting and rupture: break, chink, cleft, crack, crevice, fissure, rift, split. See open/close.

1. A division in society due to political or partisan allegiance. Examples include: Yankee versus Confederate in the American Civil War, revolutionaries versus the ancien régime in the French Revolution, or workers versus bosses.

2. The ability of a rock to split along a cleavage plane.

Term borrowed from its geological meaning to denote the splitting of a political system along ethnic or ideological lines. The term is used rather loosely, sometimes to indicate the division between dimensions (as in ‘cleavage structure’), sometimes just as a synonym for disagreement within a dimension.

For more information on cleavage, visit Britannica.com.

1. In rocks, a tendency to split along parallel, generally closely spaced surfaces as, for example, in slate.
2. In some stone industries, the splitting along the depositional layering.
3. The rupturing of adhesive bonds between rigid materials; a prying action.
4. A tendency in some woods to split along closely spaced parallel planes, as in shingles.

The process by which an animal cell divides into two daughter cells after mitosis. In an embryo, this process is repeated many times and leads to the formation of the blastula.

1. division into distinct parts, e.g. the double helix.
2. the early successive splitting of a fertilized ovum into smaller cells (blastomeres) by mitosis. See also holoblastic, meroblastic.

• c. site — the places on a strand of DNA where the restriction enzyme cleaves the DNA.

Cleavage in general refers to a division or separation of form. Its usage is heavily dependent on cultural context, where it may refer to:

• Partial exposure of part of the body:
  • Cleavage (breasts), partial exposure of the separation between a woman's breasts.
    • Cleavage enhancement, methods of making a person's breast cleavage look better than it really is.
  • Cleavage (buttocks), partial exposure of buttock cheeks, particularly when visible because of low trousers, also known colloquially in the UK as builder's bum and in the US as plumber's crack.
  • Cleavage (belly), partial exposure of the skin between the chest and the waist.
  • Cleavage (toes), partial exposure of the top of a woman's toes, particularly when visible because of shoes with low cut vamps.
• Cleavage (crystal), in mineralogy and materials science, is a process of splitting a single crystal.
• Cleavage (geology), Foliation perpendicular to stress as a result of ductile deformation. e.g. shales (shists)
• Cleavage (embryo), in embryology, is the division of cells in the early embryo.
• Cleavage (fiber), in optical fibers.
• Teeth cleavage or tooth cleavage, slang for Diastema (dentistry), the gap between a person's two front teeth.
• Cleavage (band), Toronto rock band.
• In cell biology, the Cleavage furrow is the indentation that begins the process of cleavage, by which animal cells undergo cytokinesis.
• Cleavage (chemistry and biochemistry) The breaking of chemical bonds.
• Cleavage (politics) The divisions of society that cause people to vote differently

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kløvning, spaltning, splittelse, kavalergang

Nederlands (Dutch)
(cel)scheiding, decolleté, het splijten

Français (French)
n. - décolleté, fendage, fissure, (Biol) division, (Géol) clivage

Deutsch (German)
n. - Spaltung, Kluft, Dekolleté

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διαίρεση, κατάτμηση, ρωγμή, σχίσιμο, (ενδυμ.) άνοιγμα του λαιμού, ντεκολτέ, (βιολ.) κατάτμηση, αυλάκωση

Italiano (Italian)
divisione, incavo tra i seni

Português (Portuguese)
n. - corte (m), rachadura (f), desunião (f) (fig.)

Русский (Russian)
расщелина, ложбинка между грудями, раскол

Español (Spanish)
n. - escisión, división, separación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - klyvning, spaltning, spricka, djup urringning

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
劈开, 分裂, 劈开部

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 劈開, 分裂, 劈開部

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 쪼개짐, 분열, 의견의 불일치

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 裂開, 分裂, 卵割

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شق, فطر, انشقاق‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חריץ בין השדיים, חלוקה, התבקעות, הסתדקות, התפצלות תא‬

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