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This is a picture of my sofa. There is a tight space between the arm and the seat of the sofa.

If you have a cover, you can tuck the cover in this tight gap.

Is that tight space called a gap?

For example, there is a toy stuck in the gap in the sofa.

But "a gap" has quite a big space.

I did my research and it seems to be called "crevice". But I want a common word that is used in everyday English.

What is a tight narrow space between things that are in tight contact with each other called in everyday English?

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    Could also be called a seam.
    – John Gordon
    Jun 24 at 19:13
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    I don't agree that the word gap requires a large space. A gap can be small or large. The space between two teeth is often referred to as a gap, and it can be wide or narrow.
    – barbecue
    Jun 24 at 23:09

2 Answers 2

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We usually refer to a tight narrow gap like that as the crack between the cushions, or between the side/back of a sofa and the seat cushions...

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    Apparently, the gap between the cushions went into hiding in the 60s.... I know that it's probably just an artifact of imperfect data, but it always seems weird when there's an abrupt change in one specific phrasing like that.
    – Hearth
    Jun 24 at 21:47
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    As kids, we just looked down the back or down the side of the sofa after guests left. But we might have also checked the gap/s between the seat cushions themselves. But of course, those gaps would be much shallower than the deep cracks at the back & sides (where we'd be "deep-mining" higher-value treasure - maybe silver coins rather than just coppers! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 24 at 22:02
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    @hearth abrupt changes like that are often due to one specific usage which gets repeatedly referenced in other documents. Same thing happens today with blog and forum posts.
    – barbecue
    Jun 24 at 23:07
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Crevice is fine for a narrow gap in general. It's not particularly rare word (it is something I'd expect most children to know), but in this exact situation I'd merely say "stuck down the side/back of the sofa"

Down the back of the chair

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    "crevice" actually comes last in my "beauty contest" NGram!
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 24 at 10:42
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    Except for a blissful time from the mid-60's to the early 70's.
    – Chris
    Jun 24 at 18:11
  • @Chris: Gosh! Thanks to the magic of screen zoom, I see you're quite right! But that's really because I included the in my wildcard search. Without it, crevice is nowhere to be seen - just from / down / in / wedged / it / hand / crack (space and spaces! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 24 at 21:44
  • And here's another of crevice's brief spells in the limelight. From 1908 to 1919, down the crevice in the [whatever] was actually more common than down the crack...
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 24 at 21:51
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    Automobile detailers and frequent users of vacuum cleaners all know of "crevice tools" so how can that be rare wordage or escape the ngram algorithms? Indeed the crevice tool tip is exactly intended to suck up little bits of late night snacking debris and lint, cat hair and tax free loot from those sofa and couch cushions.
    – civitas
    Jun 25 at 0:15

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