shard

noun

ˈshärd

Synonyms of shard next

: a piece or fragment of a brittle substance

shards of glass

broadly : a small piece or part : scrap

little shards of time and space recorded by the camera's lens —

Rosalind Krauss

: shell, scale

especially : elytron

or sherd

ˈshərd

: a fragment of a pottery vessel found on sites and in refuse deposits where pottery-making peoples have lived

: highly angular curved glass fragments of tuffaceous sediments

Did you know?

Shard dates back to Old English (where it was spelled sceard) and is related to Old English scieran, meaning "to cut." English speakers have adopted the modernized shard spelling for most uses, but archaeologists prefer to spell the word sherd when referring to the ancient fragments of pottery (sometimes referred to specifically as potsherds) they unearth. While shard initially referred to exactly such items, today the word is also used more broadly to encompass slivers of intangible concepts. A baseless accusation may be made "without a shard of evidence," and fans of the losing team may "cling to a shard of hope" until the final score. The utility of shard is its, ahem, point.

Examples of shard in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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The researchers behind the brain plastics study think the tiny shards of plastic hitch a ride on fat molecules to get inside brain cells. —

Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 14 Feb. 2025 Overall, cadaver brain samples contained seven to 30 times more tiny shards of plastic than their kidneys and liver, said co-lead study author Matthew Campen, Regents’ Professor and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. —

Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 3 Feb. 2025 The room where my extended family held our seder is exposed to the elements, every piece of the glass window in shards on the ground. —

Sara Fredman Aeder, Sun Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2025 The result is a maelstrom of loops crashing into one another, lyrics shattered and left as shards, and of clutter: sonic, mental, and physical. —

Pitchfork, 5 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for shard