shard
Americannoun
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shards
plural
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a fragment, especially of broken earthenware.
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Zoology.
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a scale.
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a shell, as of an egg or snail.
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Entomology. an elytron of a beetle.
noun
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a broken piece or fragment of a brittle substance, esp of pottery
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zoology a tough sheath, scale, or shell, esp the elytra of a beetle
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of shard
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English sceard; cognate with Low German, Dutch schaard; akin to shear
Explanation
If you break a mirror, the thin sharp pieces you want to avoid are shards. A shard is simply a broken piece of metal, glass, stone, or pottery with sharp edges. Don't confuse shard with shred, meaning to cut into strips, or chard, a leafy green vegetable. You could use a shard of metal to shred chard into salad, but be careful that you don't cut your hands to shreds!
Vocabulary lists containing shard
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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:
An autopsy report on an Arizona man who died in a crash noted a large shard in his neck that had a DTN serial number inscribed on it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
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 ● Feb. 4, 2026
She seemed to hold no mistrust toward me and my halting Spanish, no shard of suspicion that I could use to create the usual distance around myself.
From Slate ● Jan. 15, 2026
Spain goalkeeper Santiago Canizares missed the 2002 World Cup after he accidentally smashed a bottle of aftershave and a shard of glass severed a tendon in his right foot.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025
Selitos stooped to pick up a jagged shard of mountain glass, pointed at one end.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
According to a video shared Monday on Threads, a Parton fan who planned to lay flowers at the star found that it was marred by what seemed to be shards from a broken candle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Next to the damaged station, dozens of onlookers stared at the flames roaring from the vehicle amid shards of glass and rubble, AFP journalists observed.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
Johnson is prized for his “Broken Men” grids of anxious-seeming, masklike figures composed of shards of ceramic tile, mirror, shells and wood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
There are many risks that come with skip diving, as skips often contain broken glass, metal shards or biohazardous waste.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
The law forbade taking any of the shards, which seemed particularly absurd, considering they were smack in the middle of a bomb and missile range, bound to be hit and destroyed eventually.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
