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Recounting her life to a pet garden snail, Grace confesses many hardships, which range from being born with a cleft palate, suffering a lack of companionship and going through adoption separation from her brother (Kodi Smit-McPhee).—Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 4 Feb. 2025 Cartilage transplants are central to many procedures, being used to fix cleft palates, correct missing or misshapen ears, or to repair damage to someone’s larynx caused by cancer.—Max G. Levy, WIRED, 9 Jan. 2025 Most developmental defects happen in the first trimester of pregnancy; for example, cleft palate, a potentially debilitating birth defect, occurs sometime before week nine for reasons that scientists don’t yet understand.—Kristen V. Brown, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024 Elliot’s mother had a bit of the hoarding tendencies evinced by his lead character, who grew up with a cleft palate.—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 31 Aug. 2024 See All Example Sentences for cleft palate
: a split in the roof of the mouth that occurs as a birth defect
Medical Definition
cleft palate
noun
: congenital fissure of the roof of the mouth produced by failure of the two maxillae to unite during embryonic development and often associated with cleft lip
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