American Dictionary
Definition cleft sentence in American English
cleft sentence noun
[countable] noun
1
a way of emphasizing a word or words by re-ordering the information in a sentence. A cleft sentence consists of impersonal 'it', the verb 'be', the important word or words, and a clause. For example the sentences 'It is the answers that matter' and 'It was the money he wanted' are cleft sentences. The non-emphatic alternatives would be 'The answers matter' and 'He wanted the money'.
Synonyms and related words
