crevasse

See also crevice, and crévasse

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From French crevasse.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA: /ˈkɹɛ.vəs/, /kɹəˈvæːs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. (literally) A crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field; a chasm.
2. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field

• Aragonese: crepaza (an), crebaza (an)
• Esperanto: glaĉerfendo (eo)
• Finnish: railo (fi), halkeama (fi)
• French: crevasse (fr) f
• German: Gletscherspalte (de) f
• Indonesian: jurang es

• Italian: crepaccio (it)
• Macedonian: кланец (mk) (klánec) m
• Norwegian: bre (no) m, isbre (no) m
• Romanian: crevasă (ro) f, crăpătură (ro) f
• Russian: трещина (ru) f (treščina)

an unexplained gap between variables and outcomes

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.

---

French

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /kʀɘ.vas/

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +‎ -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive form of crever.