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Rift vs Portal - What's the difference?

rift | portal |

As nouns the difference between rift and portal

is that rift is a chasm or fissure while portal is a grandiose and often lavish entrance.

As a verb rift

is to form a rift.

As an adjective portal is

of or relating to a porta, especially the porta of the liver.

rift

English

(wikipedia rift)

Etymology 1

Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish/Norwegian '' 'breach', Old Norse ''rífa 'to tear'. More at rive.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A chasm or fissure.
    • My marriage is in trouble, the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
    The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
  • A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
  • * 1931 , William Faulkner, Sanctuary , Vintage 1993, page 130:
    • I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.
  • A shallow place in a stream; a ford.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To form a .
  • To cleave; to rive; to split.
    • to rift an oak
  • * Wordsworth
    • To dwell these rifted rocks between.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) rypta.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To belch.

    • Etymology 3

    Verb

    (head)
    • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    portal

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A grandiose and often lavish entrance.
  • * Milton
    • Thick with sparkling orient gems / The portal shone.
  • An entrance, entry point, or means of entry.
    • The local library, a portal of knowledge.
  • (Internet) A website that acts as an entrance to other websites on the Internet.
    • The new medical portal has dozens of topical categories containing links to hundreds of sites.
  • (anatomy) A short vein that carries blood into the liver.
  • (fiction) A magical or technological leading to another location, period in time or dimension.
  • (architecture) A lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions.
  • (architecture) Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of an apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.
  • (bridge-building) The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
  • A prayer book or breviary; a portass.

    • Derived terms

    * nonportal

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (anatomy) Of or relating to a porta, especially the porta of the liver.
    • the portal vein

    External links

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    See also

    * porthole * porch ----