shard

American  

[shahrd] / ʃɑrd /

Also sherd

noun

1. a fragment, especially of broken earthenware.

2. Zoology.

   1. a scale.

   2. a shell, as of an egg or snail.

3. Entomology. an elytron of a beetle.

---

shard British  

/ ʃɑːd /

noun

1. a broken piece or fragment of a brittle substance, esp of pottery

2. zoology a tough sheath, scale, or shell, esp the elytra of a beetle

---

Etymology

Origin of shard

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English sceard; cognate with Low German, Dutch schaard; akin to shear

Example Sentences

The ice lid contracts and expands with temperature fluctuations between night and day, opening cracks that fill with shards of newly frozen lake water.

From Barron's

Why were some children lucky and loved wholly and constantly and others left to scramble for shards of affection?

From Literature

A conservator uncovers the shard, which bears an intense blue figure of a skylark — evidence, at least to the reader, that Alouette’s recipe endured, and a symbol of how both she and Sasha escaped.

From Los Angeles Times

Its breath came again, like a shard of glass down a blackboard.

From Literature

Since then, researchers have received only sporadic shards of information from sources still in shock, at times crying while relaying their accounts.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• fragment
• particle
• remnant