splinter
Americannoun
-
splinters
plural
-
a small, thin, sharp piece of wood, bone, or the like, split or broken off from the main body.
- Synonyms:
- sliver
verb (used with object)
-
splinters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
splintered,
past participle, past
-
splintering
present participle
-
to split or break into splinters.
-
to break off (something) in splinters.
-
to split or break (a larger group) into separate factions or independent groups.
-
Obsolete. to secure or support by a splint or splints, as a broken limb.
noun
-
a very small sharp piece of wood, glass, metal, etc, characteristically long and thin, broken off from a whole
-
a metal fragment, from the container of a shell, bomb, etc, thrown out during an explosion
verb
-
to reduce or be reduced to sharp fragments; shatter
-
to break or be broken off in small sharp fragments
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
splintersimple
-
splinterssimple
-
have splinteredperfect
-
has splinteredperfect
-
am splinteringprogressive
-
are splinteringprogressive
-
is splinteringprogressive
-
have been splinteringperfect progressive
-
has been splinteringperfect progressive
Past
-
splinteredsimple
-
had splinteredperfect
-
was splinteringprogressive
-
were splinteringprogressive
-
had been splinteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of splinter
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German; cf. splint
Explanation
A splinter is a narrow, pointed sliver that breaks off something larger. If you walk barefoot on a wooden floor, dock, or boardwalk, you might get a splinter of wood in your foot. Ouch! We often use the word splinter to refer to tiny shards of wood that lodge under the skin, but a sliver of any hard material — stone, glass, bone, wood, metal — can be called a splinter. When something splinters, it breaks into individual bits. You can also use the word figuratively to describe something that separates in a violent or forceful way, like when a mainstream political party splinters into more or less extreme groups.
Vocabulary lists containing splinter
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"Mother to Son"
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"Mississippi Solo" by Eddy Harris
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The ESL was a splinter league formed by 12 of Europe's biggest clubs, including six from the Premier League.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
The bloc of governors would have to splinter before a majority of Fed voters in favor of a hike could carry the day.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
President Bola Tinubu said the attackers were militants from Ansaru, a Boko Haram splinter group known to operate in central Nigeria, extending into the southwest.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
That threat could be a pathogen inside the body or something as simple as a splinter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
It was like that sudden chill in her bedroom had settled in right under her heart, lodged into her like an icy splinter.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
I also wanted to understand if my treatment, which forced me to excavate painful childhood memories lodged beneath the surface, like splinters the skin had long healed over, could help others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Pitchers build arm strength by pitching, not by growing splinters on their collective butts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2025
"I read a heart breaking story about a mother who'd just moved into a house, and her young child got some splinters in his toes and was in quite a lot of pain," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025
As the film moves from Guatemala to Mexico and then to the United States, Nava slowly splinters the magical realism Rosa and Enrique had grown up with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
The box shattered with a resounding crack, and I threw my hands up as needle-sharp splinters of glass sprayed in all directions.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
“Immediately noticeable were the sagging eaves, the multitude of leaks from the roof, the dried out, splintered mahogany and the battered exterior woodwork, which had suffered seven decades of winds from the Sound.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
Other chapters, written in splintered, sharply poeticized fragments, assume Gelsomina’s point of view.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
“Things hadn’t splintered out into a zillion niche locations just quite yet,” Adkins said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Its army eventually withdrew and the Islamist militants left behind splintered and turned against each other.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Beside it was the splintered body of a tree, still rolling to a stop after the collision.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
These surge for tens of kilometers, splintering trees, igniting forests and burying the remnants beneath hot ash and pumice.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Dramatic video footage from Long Beach shows massive waves slamming into the shoreline and splintering the wood on the boardwalk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
“Or you get chaos and splintering and regionalization,” Ratney said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
Price’s thesis is simple, but unsettling: modern digital life — especially social media — is turbocharging our anxieties and splintering our attention spans, making what she calls “True Fun” feel increasingly elusive.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025
Just at this moment Stuart heard a splintering crash, saw the bow of the Lillian plow through his rigging, and felt the whole ship tremble from stem to stern with the force of the collision.
From "Stuart Little" by E.B. White
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