Plural of “cliff”

The plural of cliff is cliffs.

Why

"Cliff" comes from Old English "clif," a native word describing a steep rock face, related to similar words across the Germanic languages. Like "roof," it's a native English -f noun, yet it never developed any competing -ves plural at all, taking a plain -s from its earliest recorded uses.

Unlike "roof," which at least has a documented minority "rooves" variant, "cliff" shows essentially no historical trace of ever following the -f-to-ves pattern, which is one reason linguists caution against treating the shift as a simple, predictable rule based purely on a word's Old English ancestry — some native -f words shifted fully, some partially, and some, like "cliff," apparently never did at all. One proposed explanation is that the -ves shift historically applied most reliably to words whose final -f sound was preceded by a long vowel, and "cliff," with its short vowel, simply never fell into the phonetic environment where the voicing shift tended to occur in Old and Middle English.

Usage note

Geography, geology, and figurative uses describing any steep, dramatic drop all rely on "cliffs" without exception or competing spelling. The financial phrase "fiscal cliff," describing a sudden, sharp drop in government spending or a spike in taxes, extends the word's dramatic-drop imagery into economic and political journalism, where it pluralizes normally whenever multiple such moments are being compared.

Coastal geologists distinguish several structurally different kinds of cliffs, sea cliffs shaped by wave erosion, fault scarps formed by tectonic movement, and river-cut cliffs carved gradually by flowing water, though all of them take the same plain "cliffs" plural regardless of how they formed. The word's fixed idiom "cliffhanger," describing a suspenseful, unresolved ending, dates to early 20th-century serialized film and radio drama, where episodes literally sometimes ended with a character left dangling from a literal cliff to guarantee audiences would return for the next installment.

Common real mistakes

The plural itself carries essentially zero risk of error; the one related trip-up worth flagging is the compound "cliffhanger," which some writers mistakenly split into two words, though that's a separate issue from pluralizing "cliff" itself. Writers should also watch subject-verb agreement in longer sentences describing cliffs, since a string of prepositional phrases between the plural subject and its verb can tempt a writer into a mismatched singular verb.

The wider pattern

"Cliff" joins "chief" and "belief" among -f nouns that never shifted to -ves, and comparing it with "roof," which did develop a partial -ves variant, shows just how unevenly the historical shift actually applied even among words that look almost identical in shape and origin.

Examples

• The hikers stopped to admire the view from the cliffs.
• Erosion has slowly worn away the coastal cliffs over centuries.
• Several cliffs along the trail require extra caution.
• The lighthouse stands atop one of the highest cliffs on the coast.
• Rock climbers scaled the cliffs near the old quarry.
• Seabirds nest along the rocky cliffs each spring.
• The road winds dangerously close to steep cliffs.
• Photographers gathered at sunset to capture the dramatic cliffs.
• Landslides are common along these unstable cliffs.
• The novel's climax takes place on a windswept cliff overlooking the sea.
• The survey identified several unstable cliffs threatening the coastal road.
• The kayakers paddled beneath towering limestone cliffs.
• Fences were installed along the cliffs to keep visitors at a safe distance.
• The old fort was built into the cliffs overlooking the harbor.
• The trail hugged the edge of the cliffs for nearly a mile.
• Geologists study these cliffs to trace centuries of sediment layers.
• Warning signs lined the cliffs above the crashing waves.
• Erosion experts monitor these cliffs for signs of collapse each year.
• The road curves sharply along the rocky cliffs.