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
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
have splinteredperfect
-
has splinteredperfect 3rd person singular
-
has been splinteringperfect progressive 3rd person singular
-
are splinteringprogressive
-
am splinteringprogressive 1st person singular
-
splinterssingular 3rd person
-
is splinteringprogressive 3rd person singular
-
splinteringparticiple
-
have been splinteringperfect progressive
Past
-
had splinteredperfect
-
were splinteringprogressive plural
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splinteredsimple
-
was splinteringprogressive singular
-
had been splinteringperfect progressive
-
splinteredparticiple
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.
It no longer controls the huge swathes of territory it once did, but it, and other splinter groups, remains active and dangerous.
From BBC • Jun. 7, 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
To make my characters more interesting than that, I wanted them to have moments of self-awareness that would stick like a splinter in their brains and not let them off the hook.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
A door somewhere is kicked open—I hear wood chips splinter.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
