cleve

C3L1E1V4E1

noun

A room; chamber.

OriginMiddle English cleve ← Old English cleofa ← Proto-Germanic *klebô →
Less commonScrabble 10
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Meanings

cleve1

nouncleve (plural cleves)

plural cleves

  1. dialectalA room; chamber.
  2. dialectalA cottage.
  3. obsoleteA cliff or hillside.

Cleve2

proper noun
  1. A small town on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, named after Cleve House in Devon, England.
  2. A local government area is this area of South Australia; in full, the District Council of Cleve.
  3. A surname.
  4. A male given name, found predominantly in the United States.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*glewbʰ-“to cut, cleave, split, divide”
  2. Proto-Germanic*klebô“chamber, cell”
  3. Old Englishcleofa“that which is cloven, a cleft, chasm, cave, den, lair, cell, chamber, cellar, apartment”
  4. Middle Englishcleve
  5. Englishcleve

From Middle English cleve, from Old English cleofa (“that which is cloven, a cleft, chasm, cave, den, lair, cell, chamber, cellar, apartment”), from Proto-Germanic *klebô (“chamber, cell”), from Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- (“to cut, cleave, split, divide”). Cognate with Old Norse klefi (“a closet, sleeping closet, bedroom”) (whence Icelandic klefi (“cell, compartment”)). Related to cleave.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cleve. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleve

MLA

“cleve.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleve. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cleve,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cleve.

Source: cleve on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.