splinter
Americannoun
-
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)
-
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
Unit 1: Telling Details
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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:
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
While broadcast evening news and morning shows have suffered from viewer drop-offs as audiences splinter and get their information from a range of sources, the declines at CBS have been particularly steep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
That threat could be a pathogen inside the body or something as simple as a splinter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
From hosting streaming events at the Three Sisters pub in the capital, a splinter group has formed and they now attend ice hockey games together.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
I saw no possibility of organizing a splinter movement, for what would be the next step?
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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
Navigating around the crater, Al-Ahmad trudged into the blown-out remains of the hall, his feet crunching on an underbrush of glass, wood splinters and insulation.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
Pitchers build arm strength by pitching, not by growing splinters on their collective butts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2025
"Fortunately, it was a small injury from plastic splinters from the right window."
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025
Sefia turned to the crate and dug her fingernail into the letters, pulling up splinters and flicking them into the sea.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
The increasingly splintered ways in which voters seek information, fueled by the rapid changes in technology and media, has kept political campaign strategists on their toes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
When he climbed the heap of slurry, he saw splintered furniture and ruined papers, but one thing remained intact.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
Despite a concluding chapter that struggles to make these storylines converge, “Now I Surrender” remains frustratingly splintered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
The anti-Assad forces were splintered, mutually mistrustful and prone to looting; the areas they controlled descended into anarchy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
There were two windows—a large one at the front and a smaller one at the back in the only bedroom—both covered by plastic sheets held in place with tape, the wood casings warped and splintered.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
The estate of Wuthering Heights is foreboding and dark, with rocks splintering through the walls, while Linton’s Thrushcross Grange bears a Victorian aesthetic, containing the outside world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
Individual investors kicked off 2026 by taking a page from the playbook of global central banks and stockpiling gold as a hedge against a splintering world order.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 10, 2026
“Even if there is some post-crackdown splintering, the nucleus of the regime now has even more incentive to stick together.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 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
Jason took a last look at the splintering ship.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
