shard

noun

ˈshärd 

1

a

: 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

b

: shell, scale

especially : elytron

2

or sherd

ˈshərd 

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

3

: 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

Inside the lobby of Building 1 is a display of some of the site’s smaller artifacts — such as pottery shards, buttons and Civil War-era bullets. —Washington Post, 12 June 2024

The characters speak in archaic phrases and words, mixing shards of Shakespeare, Ovid, and at one point straight-up Latin. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 May 2024

Kasavin said Supergiant had been tempted to create a sequel after the positive reception of Bastion (2011), in which a child collects powerful shards in a hostile environment that unfolds as a narrator provides commentary. —Brian X. Chen, New York Times, 13 May 2024

This process could splinter the shelf into an unsteady mass of giant, shifting shards that will no longer stabilize one of Antarctica's largest glaciers. —Douglas Fox, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2022

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English sceard; akin to Old English scieran to cut — more at shear

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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Kids Definition

shard

noun

ˈshärd 

: a piece or fragment of something brittle (as pottery)