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
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
From his pocket, Serhiy Melnyk pulls out a small rusty shard, wrapped neatly in paper.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
It mattered because it took place when women were beginning to shatter old stereotypes, and she wanted to obliterate every shard of that glass ceiling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
“Know this,” she said, her voice as clear as a shard of glass.
From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu
Let cool completely on the baking sheet, then break into clusters and shards.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
Researchers carefully sift through dirt samples and use specialized tools called micromanipulators to isolate the tiny shards.
From Science Daily ● May 11, 2026
Three years ago he expanded into a larger studio to create towering sculptures built from thousands of tiny, hand cut mirrored shards that can stretch up to 27 feet tall and weigh a ton.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
A Persian baklava dressed with golden shards of filo pastry.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
More jam, and shards of glittering glass strewn across the tile.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
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.
