CLEAVAGE
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language
Fourth Edition.
2000.
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 a. 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 . b. 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.
