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
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:
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
Recently six countries representing most of the bloc’s economy and population formed a splinter group to drive the idea forward, and their leaders are trying to persuade others to join.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
That threat could be a pathogen inside the body or something as simple as a splinter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
The 21st Century saw dance music splinter into even more sub-genres, providing something for everyone to move to.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
He pretended to be removing a splinter from his foot, but he was cautiously scanning the trail and the grass around us.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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
As attention splinters and our realities feel increasingly fractured, it makes sense that Coachella would begin to mirror that condition, each version just real enough to feel like the whole thing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
"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
But new questions lodged themselves in my mind like splinters of wood stuck under the skin.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
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
In the modern music industry, with listening splintered across various streaming services and social-media platforms, it’s hard to write any song, much less a protest song, that reaches a critical mass of listeners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
And earlier this month, seven of those MPs splintered off from the party in protest at the authoritarian management of long-standing leader Wilders.
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
Instead, it splintered the front of the carriage.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
The serious journalism Margaret aspires to do is splintering under our distrust of who controls the megaphones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Now this very coalition is splintering as his support spirals downward.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 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
“Or you get chaos and splintering and regionalization,” Ratney said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
The piano jerked out of our hands, sending us lurching forward, and bounced into the house, splintering the door frame.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
