Hello, new to the game and reading some newbie guides I’ve seen the term ‘cleave’ used a lot, usually referring to additional enemies. I was just curious what exactly this is, does it mean focusing on destroying new enemies or something?
Thank you 
Cleave is a Warrior attack that hits multiple targets.
I don’t play a Warrior so I don’t know why it would be particularly noteworthy.
Cleave is multi-target attack.
Attack rotations usually revolve around either attacking a single target, or attacking multiple targets.
Someclass/specs are good for one or the other, some good for both, and some good for neither.
Blizzard adjusts cleaves before and during each xpac to change the number of targets and/or the damage done to each auxiliary target to try to balance the various class/specs.
While the term itself refers to a warrior melee attack, it’s also used as a generic term for any melee or ranged multi-target attack.
E.g. Outlawrougues have Blade Flurry.BM hunters have multi-shot, which can also generated cleaves by their melee pets.
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Thank you, that makes a lot more sense now
To add to what Nok said, I usually think of cleave as targeting and attacking a primary or priority target and some damage may split and hit the other targets nearby (splitting ice for frost mage icicle, havoc for destruction warlock, beast cleave for BM hunter, etc). Area of effect spells are generally placed at a location and don’t have or require a primary target. Although sometimes I feel like there may be some grey areas in the distinction, or some instances I haven’t thought of that go against that definition, I usually think of it like that. Some instances of cleave are probably also generally referred to as AOE damage, as well.
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